Keira Hale - Slytherin's Golden Snake
by Simmens
Summary: Before he went to kill Harry Potter in that fateful night, Voldemort had a secret daughter. But as he fell, she disappeared and became a legend. Now, at the age of 14, Kiera Hale lives with the Malfoys, plays Quidditch and is on the verge of starting her first year at Hogwarts. Which side will she choose? Years 4-7 (Currently in year 4) Gets better in the later chapters...
1. Prologue

**Note: Hey guys, thanks for trying out this fic. Just you know, this is kind of the prologue so the style will change in the next few chapters. Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance and enjoy.**

Cries echoed through the cold stone walls of the manor, the echoes interfering, making it sound like several high pitched voices screaming in pain and effort, instead of solely a single one. A man with smooth black hair which created a vast contrast to his pale complexion was pacing in circles. The red eyes glancing at the door every so often.

He had to admit, Lord Voldemort was nervous. Not as nervous as a father should have been, no, he was far beyond that point, but rather impatient to hold his heir in his hands. His heirs. Twins, he had been told by the nurse who had been kidnapped from a magic hospital. Sure, no death eater would bother with learning how to perform such a trivial and disgusting profession. She would have to die of course, nobody safe for his most trusted followers should be aware of their existence.

The door opened and a figure with white hair, but dressed in black entered. "My Lord" she seemed to vibrate with excitement, after all she was the sister of the mother-to-be, "you are the father of a boy and a girl. Do you want to see them?".

He walked past her with long, confident strides, not bothering to answer, eager to see his heirs. His destination was a room looking awfully similar to the insides of a muggle hospital for his taste, but it fulfilled its purpose. When he entered, the mother was lying in the bed, holding two small bundles in her arms.

He was at their side in an instant. Carefully, more careful than most people would expect the Dark Lord to be, he picked up the boy. Curious, the little boy reached out and touched his father's face, but quickly retracted his hand as if he had been burned, then a second time, with more confidence. Feeling uncomfortable with the touch as he hadn't ever felt affection like that before, he placed the boy back and picked up the girl instead. She was silent. The boy had giggled and made noises, she didn't, just looked at his face, at his eyes with an edge of curiosity.

He also placed her down and took out his wand. "Are they both healthy?" the nurse which was placed under the Imperius curse turned around from what she was doing. "Yes, both of them are in excellent health" He pointed his wand at her chest. "Good" and with a flick of his wand and a mere thought she slumped to the ground.

Voldemort then turned back to the children and took the boy's left wrist. They would be the youngest death eater's to be marked. Pride filled his chest, but he paused, and then took his other wrist. They were extraordinary. A mark on the right wrist would be subtle but different and its message would be clear: Those were his heirs, his future, his legacy.

He concentrated and slowly, line by line, imprinted his sign into his son who screamed during the whole process. Even the hardest of his followers did. Once done, he proceeded with his daughter. With her it was the same, yet different. As she screamed, he heard a slight hissing accompanying her cries. A glance at Bellatrix confirmed his suspicion: she was screaming like a snake would, in Parseltongue.

-Two years later-

Close to two years had passed since then and both of the twins, Tom jr. and Kiera were riding brooms in the garden while Rosier was looking out for them and Rockwood was inside.

Voldemort was gone, supposedly killed by Harry Potter. Bellatrix had been captured and imprisoned in Azkaban. The last message they had left the two death eaters was to take to watch the children. It didn't matter to them that is was only meant to be for a day, the two would do so until told otherwise. Currently, these two children were giggling as Kiera chased her brother while hissing something. While she usually spoke English now, in situations like this, she would still resort to parseltongue. It was a scene like a typical family, however far from reality this picture would be. Almost idyllic.

That idyll was suddenly destroyed by multiple cracks. The children didn't notice, but Rosier recognized them as being caused by Apparation; as if the picture of a dozen middle-aged men in long coats with their wands drawn suddenly appearing out of nowhere wasn't a sign enough.

"Rockwood, the Order!" Rosier shouted to alert his partner, simultaneously drawing his wand. "Stand down and we won't hurt you. Voldemort is dead. You are outnumbered" Alastor Moody, unmistakable with his wooden leg, shouted.

"Go to Hell" and a flash of green light were his answer. The Auror narrowly avoided it and soon the whole place was filled with curses flying between the two parties; the two Death eaters retreating to the terrace and the Aurors towards the trees planted on the opposite side of the garden while throwing everything they got at the enemy.

They didn't notice the twins still playing, too busy with dodging and throwing curses.

They didn't notice them flying into the path of a curse flashing with green light.

They did notice the boy dropping from his broom.

"Seize fire" Moody shouted effectively stopping the rest of the Aurors who were still throwing curses and surprisingly, even the two Death Eaters who were hiding half inside the house.

"Shit" Rosier cursed behind his cover and Rockwood couldn't fault him. They were responsible for the two children. Neither of them had ones, but even if they were death eaters and death was common for them, a dead child who could barely walk was something entirely different.

"We're so dead" Rockwood paled and looked at the corpse in the middle of the battlefield. His sister was beside her brother and nudged him, as if expecting him just to jump up and laugh.

"Did you see whose curse it was?" Rookwood was still aiming at the wizards he could spot, but no curse escaped his wand.

"No, but it wasn't mine!" there was an edge of desperation but also relief in his voice.

"You see what you have done?" Moody's voice came out from behind a tree. "A child is dead, surrender now!"

"Never" Rosier shouted back and turned to Rockwood. "Neither of us threw the curse, so it's not our fault" They both knew the Dark Lord would heavily disagree.

"Then at least allow us to take the girl to safety". Said girl had now understood her brother would not be playing with her anymore and was now crying and cradling her brother.

"Listen, Rookwood, we can't let the Order get the girl." A look of mutual understanding passed between both of them. The girl was the future leader of their brotherhood and their master's daughter. "For the cause" the older one said. "For the cause" the younger one replied. Then, as one, Rosie and Rockwood stood up and threw curse after curse at the Aurors while running at the girl. Moody threw himself on the ground, but no one dared firing back as they were too afraid to hit the little girl who was innocently standing in the line of fire. As soon as he was close enough, Rockwood grabbed the girl at the waist and disapparated while Rosier covered him. But now the death eater was alone, standing in a spot with no protection against an army of Aurors. He refused to surrender. It was over soon.

After Rockwood had disapparated, he knew that he had to take the girl somewhere safe. Just now, his mind started processing the fact that he had to take the girl somewhere safe where she could stay permanently and so he had apparated again and appeared in front of the Malfoy's Manor. He knew they had always been very secretive in their participation with the death eaters, careful not to show any allegiance to the outside, providing mainly money. Despite of this, their name had become a synonym for 'death eater'. But Narcissa was Bellatrix's sister and she didn't have the Dark Mark, so the girl would have at least someone who would care for her until her father returned.

During the following years, Kiera grew up in the Malfoy household. Although she knew she was the Dark Lord's daughter, Draco became like a brother to her and Kiera became like his little sister to him. The Aurors never found out that Voldemort had children, because those who knew were loyal and kept their mouths shut.

Lucius and Narcissa decided to home-school her and keep her from the general knowledge and most importantly, from Dumbledore. Instead, Lucius went to work at the ministry after having been cleared of all charges and Narcissa taught the girl everything she knew.

The girl absorbed the knowledge. At age seven, she could handle a wand and basic spells. At age ten, she started learning casting spells silently, at age 13 she could do spells without a wand. Kiera excelled at Charms and anything related to magic but never had the knack for potions and pureblood-history. But at an early age they noticed her biggest talent: flying. And Lucius and Narcissa soon realized that they could not keep her in the cellar all the time; she needed her freedom. So they changed her name from Riddle into Hale and enrolled her in a Quidditch team when she was 10. They figured that after 10 years, no one would think of the one child that escaped 10 years ago and they were right.

There, Kiera was chosen as a Chaser and it didn't take long for scouts to notice her. That marked the end of her not being in the public, so the Malfoy's told everyone that she had been adopted and luckily from an old pure-blood family and luckily no suspicions arose. She went from team to team until she was Ireland's youngest national player in their junior team.


	2. Quidditch World Cup

„Blutcher on your right! " Sarah, one of the chasers in the Irish national junior team, instantly reacted to my warning and rolled on her back, purposely dropping the Quaffel and only narrowly avoiding the black Blutcher. Below her, my fellow chaser Jinx caught it and continued towards the rings on the other side. "Phoenix Fife" I shouted, a kind of code we had made up signaling the next move.

No further words were exchanged as we took a simple triangular formation. Jinx, clutching the Quaffel under her arm, on the top, Sarah, a little below her on the left and me on the right. Now every one of our adversaries had to cover one of us and seeing as they were less experienced as we were, that should not be a problem. Plus, if we were past them, the advantage of our speed would be crucial to outfly them. Sure enough, the 'bing' of the scoreboard counted up a few seconds later as Jinx scored. "Alright guys, that's enough" I groaned inwardly as our trainer's magical enhanced voice ended the training.

It was always the same: relieve when my feet left the ground and disappointment when they returned to it. But we knew better than to question our trainer and flew towards him. Willy Sommers was a hard and stern, but fair man in his early fifties who had been a well-known beater when he was young until, ironically, a bludger had ended his career. Now, he was teaching the junior Irish National team how to play and apparently, he did a pretty good job at that.

"Ok, guys, that was very good" Sarah, Jinx and I high-fived. Praise from our coach had to be earned and was the only treat we ever got from him. Not that we needed anything more. "Sarah, you need to work a little on your peripheral sight. Jinx, you picked up the Quaffel very fluently and Kiera, good team-work warning Sarah."

"Thanks, boss!" We were clearly all still on the adrenaline rush from the match as we jumped up and down earning us a glare from our Sommers. Half-heartily we listened as he continued to praise or improve my other teammates: The chaser and captain, William; the beaters, Kirk and Manny and the keeper, Wally. Our attention was more focused on the two people walking across the grass from the tribunes over to us.

I hadn't noticed them so far, they must have been watching from inside. But as they came closer, Jinx squealed in delight as she recognized them: They were Aidan Lynch, the captain of the Irish National Quidditch team and Troy, one of their chasers who will be playing in the finals this summer. She poked me in the arm. "Hey, look, they are…" Sarah gave her a look. "We know who they are Jinx, calm down, you don't want them to see you like that." With visible effort my teammate stood still and tried to look professional, which looked hilarious. By now, the others had noticed the two elder players as well and we all turned to them. "Oh, here they are…..Boys and girls, I am sure you know who those two guys are..." They nodded at us and were greeted by some 'hi's and 'hello's. The taller one of them, Troy, took over. "Hey, I am Troy, this is Lynch. To cut things short: The reason we are here is because we need a chaser. Mullet currently is…indisposed"

Jinx leaned over to me. "She is pregnant." Trust my fellow chaser to know all the gossip and news about celebrities. Judging by the slight undertone in Lynch's voice he wasn't overly happy that one of his top-chasers won't be available for the Quidditch finale. Then, my heard jumped as I realized what that meant: Mullet was a chaser and… they needed another chaser to replace him. Judging by the fact that Sarah let out a small "yes", she must have realized it, too. That could only mean they were going to pick one of us! "So, we've been watching your training lately" The way the coach smiled, he must have known.

Sneaky old man. "and we've come to the conclusion that Miss Hale would be a good addition to our team during the final's" Wait, what? I hadn't realized what he had said yet but the whole team was already hugging and congratulating me and thus, dragging me to the ground. Subconsciously, I held onto the long glove I was always wearing to conceal the dark mark. Our trainer, Troy and Lynch shared an amused look and gave us a few moments before couching quite obviously. "Thanks" I managed to get out while trying to get up, this has been my dream since I was young. Well, technically, I was still young.

"So, you know the World Cup is in two month…" Lynch was already back to business; seriously, I knew the tournament would be ending soon but this guy really needed to relax sometimes. Just a notch. "…and you know we will be playing against Bulgaria. That leaves us not too much time to prepare, so you will have to study our tactics and train quite often. Are you up to it?" I definitely wouldn't leave such a chance. Besides, I was ahead at the stuff other kids would be learning at school now and Lucius and Narcissa surely wouldn't be against it. "Definitely!" They both grinned and I don't think I've ever seen our trainer more proud. "Good, we've spoken with your trainer, he will give you our training schedule, so I guess…we'll see you in two days" They waved their goodbyes and left.

Needless to say, my mood was very good for the rest of the time, to say the least. I was lucky to have such teammates who weren't jealous but happy for me. Jinx couldn't stop squealing during showering and while Sarah was usually almost driven mad by it, she couldn't help but going along. After showering we said our goodbyes. As I would train with the senior team at least for the next few weeks, the next time we would see each other was at the World Cup. The whole team wished me luck and promised to come and support me there. Besides, it was kind of unofficially compulsory for them to go there anyway.

As always after training, I went to the fireplace in the trainer's office and after he had handed me the schedule, I picked a handful of green powder, got into the fireplace and threw it down. "Malfoy Manor!" Within seconds I stumbled out of the fireplace in the manor, careful not to drag too much ash onto the floor. Narcissa always got mad when I did. "Hey, I am home!" I shouted.

"There is no need to shout" Lucius' voice came from the dinner table from around the corner. It looked they were in the middle of eating dinner when I had arrived. "Sorry" I said, not really meaning it and judging by the looks on his face, Lucius knew it. Usually, I was a little cooler around him, but not today. "Guess what happened…" I looked at them. "You met a guy today?" Narcissa suggested and I scowled at her.

For some reason, she was always asking about those things. "No, but the chaser of the Irish National Team is pregnant and won't be able to play for the next couple of month!" Draco looked at me, realization slowly dawning in his face. "And I will take his place!" I burst out, not being able to hold the news any longer. "Hey, that's great" Draco and Narcissa stood up and hugged me while Lucius smiled. It didn't reach his eyes.

He's always been quite cold and odd around me, not like he was around Draco in private. I then explained the whole situation to them and had to collect myself not to hug Lucius when he allowed me to play as a chaser. As always, the last call was his and while I had been confident that he wouldn't deny it to me, it felt good to have the last doubts erased. After all, a famous Quidditch player in the family couldn't be that bad for his reputation. Then it hit me. I was going to be the youngest player ever being part of the finals in, what, like 200 years? I couldn't sleep that night.

-Time skip-

Two days later, Lucius brought me to the training and promptly managed to get seats in one of the best lounges in the stadion while I was meeting the team. Apart from the stick-in-the-ass Lynch, Moran and Troy were sort of the twins in the team: inseparable and always good for a laugh. The two beaters, Connolly and Quigley paid their positions respect and like almost all beaters, their bodies were far from thin.

That left the keeper, Ryan who didn't talk much. They all welcomed me into the team and soon treated me kind of like a little sister or protégée which made things a lot smoother for me. I wasn't as fixated on celebrities like Jinx but hey, they have been kind of my role-models since I was a little girl and now I got where I wanted; and it sure made coming into a completely new team easier.

Needless to say, the next two months were the hardest and most challenging in my Quidditch career: Muscle training, agility training, theoretical lessons, additional chaser training and I few things I'd better not mention. The trainer even let us run and crawl through the mud after it had rained once. A true boot-camp, but it was also fun! Sort of. Nevertheless I couldn't express how glad I was that the last week was not that intense; He didn't want us to play against Bulgaria with sore bodies after all.

The big day for me came faster than expected. One day prior to the match I met up with Lynch and the rest of the team to travel to the site of the tournament. And it was impressive, I've never quite seen such a huge arena, it was bigger than anyone I've ever played in.

At the end of the day, we had dinner with the Prime minister, an old beater I vaguely remembered from discussions in the changing rooms, a few other officials and the Bulgarian team. I talked to some of them, they were really nice given they technically were my enemies. And of course, Lucius was there as well, he'd never let an opportunity like that pass.

When I asked Troy about my thoughts afterwards, he just explained that it the rivalry belonged to the field and not to the rest of the life. That was new to me; in my prior teams, there'd always been some sort of competitiveness and rivalry between the teams before and after the game. Nothing serious but not harmless either. It was good advice.

\- Time skip -

Then it was time, we stood on a ramp hidden from the sight, waiting for our clue to come out. I shivered from nervousness. Troy next to me noticed and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, calm down, this isn't your first match!" he mocked. I glared at him and shrugged his arm of playfully. I wasn't that little anymore!

"Well, sorry, but it isn't every day that you play in the Quidditch finals!"

He laughed and patted me on the back instead.

"Don't worry, just give your best, remember the training and everything'll be fine!" Of all the guys, Troy had somehow grown on me like a brother and I was pretty sure he saw me kind of as a little sister as well. In the background I faintly heard the announcement for the Bulgarian team; then it was our turn.

"And now, Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the Irish National Team…." This was it, the moment I've been waiting for.

"Ok, here we go!" Lynch called and we mounted our brooms. "Let's do this!"

As soon as it started, all the nervousness faded away. I was good at this. Lynch flew first, directly followed by Conolly, Quigley and Troy. Then it was my turn; quickly I pushed myself from the ground and sped after them. "Troy, Hale, Moran, Connolly, Quigley, Ryan…aaaaaand Lynch!" I heard the moderator shout.

The crowd burst into cheers and it was an overwhelming feeling. "Get your act together, Hale and concentrate on the game" I mumbled to myself and flew to my position in the cycle, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

As soon as I heard the whistle, I pressed myself flat onto my broom and shot forwards, my eyes on the Quaffel that was thrown upwards from down below. And, due to my smaller size and weight, I got there first, grabbed the ball and barely managed to avoid one of the Bulgarian chasers by frantically turning upside-down.

Quickly, I threw the Quaffle to Troy who himself handed it to Moran. We sped towards the hoops, barely avoiding a blutcher swung at us. Time for our first trick. Shortly before we were in range, I had the Quaffle. I pretended to try to score it, but instead just threw it a little up into the air and dove below. Behind me, Moran caught it, did the same thing and dove as well. Finally, Troy caught it and hammered the ball into the right hoop. The Bulgarian chasers hadn't been fast enough to rearrange themselves to stop us.

"And after an impressive trick, the Irish team leads with 10-0!" A cheer went to the crowds but there wasn't any time for us to do so. The game didn't stop and we were already on our way backwards in our own half before the Bulgarians could get there. The following 20 points were scored by Moran and me after I'd managed to intercept two passes. I loved doing that and it seemed to rile up our enemies. After just a few minutes, it was clear that Troy, Muran and me were just faster and it was a thrill!

We passed and threw the Quaffel faster than we'd ever done, clearly influenced by this being the World Cup final; the moderator even gave up saying our names after a while! The only time Bulgaria managed to score was when Krum pulled off the Wronski-Feint and Lynch crashed into the ground, distracting us for a moment.

I cringed inwardly, both out of anger that I let this distract me and because I wasn't Lynch at this moment. Instead, I scored 3 further goals, a result of brilliant cooperation between us three when things started to go a little south.

Two penalty shots were awarded to us when Mullet was fouled. Mullet scored them both. 150-10 for us. And after a second crash into the ground, I honestly hadn't much hope in Lynch to be able to catch the snitch. But that just urged me to go on. And it seemed it did the same to my teammates.

Now, bludgers were literally raining down on us, but Quigley and Conolly did a brilliant job in keeping them away as best as they could; Troy scored the next goal, me the one after that. Then the referee whistled. Another foul? Honestly, the last 15 minutes had been chaos. I looked around to see what was going on when my eyes fell on Krum.

More specifically on his hand or what was in it. He'd caught the snitch and my heart stopped for a second. After all the work and goals we'd lost. I felt disappointment arising in my chest.

"And Ireland is the winner of the 1994 World Quidditch Cup!" Wait, what? I looked on the scoreboard. 170-160. For us! We'd won. I felt tears coming into my eyes. We'd won! I couldn't believe it, it was so surreal. Usually the team whose seeker caught the snitch won. I noticed that my teammates were flying towards me, cheering.

They couldn't believe it either! Romania had caught the snitch, but we'd won! Then, out of solidarity, we flew towards the Romanians and congratulated them for their performance. But the best moment came when we stood on the tribune shortly afterwards. "1...2…3…" Lynch held up the cup and the crowd erupted in cheers once more! It seriously was the happiest moment of my life.

Needless to say, the celebration afterwards was awesome. We were in a secluded tent only the players and their families had access to but sadly, my family wasn't there. I didn't mind Lucius being absent but I'd at least expected Draco to attend. I've always suspected that he had a crush on one of my teammates. But it didn't matter for long, because I was hugged by Jinx and Sarah who'd come to congratulate me, which meant that Jinx couldn't stop cheering and hugging me and very unlike her nature, Sarah joined in as well.

Unfortunately, our party was cut short when a few security guys came barging in and told us there was a riot outside and that we had to get away from here. Still in the daze of the party and truthfully, a little alcohol, it all happened in a blur hindering me from thinking straight. When I tried to get out of the tent, Troy grabbed my arm. "Where do you think you are going?" I tried to wrestle my arm out of his grip but it was useless. "I have to get to Draco and…"

"Nonsense" he interrupted me. "Trust me, if there is a riot out here and the security guards say it is so intense that we have to get away from here, we really should do that!" I forced myself to calm down. He was right and I scolded myself for not thinking this through. "There are several places to go in case something like that happens. Don't worry, they'll be fine" Troy continued. Then, after I had nodded my approval, everything went black.

 **Thanks for reading, I hope I made the Quidditch scenes so you could imagine how it went. Please, rate and review. Thanks**


	3. Hogwarts

Tumbling from the sudden reappearance, Troy's firm hand was the only thing that prevented me from hitting the ground. God, I hated side-by-side apparating!

"Hey, a warning would have been fair" I scowled at my fellow Quidditch player who just shrugged in response. The clearing around us was filled with people, more and more constantly popping out of thin air. "Where are we?" We started walking towards a large tree at the edge of a forest.

"Somewhere safe. An evacuation point in case something like this happens; ministry decided it would be wise to have an emergency plan." That sounded logical. "Where are the others?" There were thousands of wizards and witches at the games. "There are other points as well and a few might have just disappeared home of something"

He directed me towards a white tent, it's big red sign designating it as an 'information point'. "Excuse me?" A middle-aged woman looked up from her papers. "I am Duvall Troy and this is Kiera Hale. Could you somehow tell the Malfoy's we are at this evacuation point?" The witch nodded. "Sorry, but do you know what happened?" I inquired. The wizard from before had said that it was just a riot of some sort, but it must have been something very big to evacuate the entire World Cup. "From what I know, some guys in black masks have been targeting the muggles we had under a memory spell and a few wizards. But that`s all I know so far."

Suddenly, everything fell into place for me. Wizards in black attire with masks attacking muggles and muggle-borns. Lucius missing during the celebration; he must have been a part of it. But Draco's absence at the celebration, I couldn't explain, he wasn't into the Death eater stuff. He might act like a pureblood prat and actually be one but he wouldn't do something like that.

I knew this because a few months ago, we were alone at home; Lucius and Narcissa had gone to some high-society dinner and we'd started to talk. Somehow, the topic had changed to my Quidditch team and I'd told him that Jinx was a mud- a muggleborn. When I had first met her, I wasn't very keen on talking to her, but over the time I'd seen that she wasn't bad at all; well, apart from her obsession with famous people. I'd learnt the hard way that you shouldn't mention Gilderoy Lockhard to her and we became friends. Of course, I've kept this a secret from my family. Anyway, it was then when Draco had told me he may not like muggle-borns, muggles or blood traitors but he would never treat them like a death eater would.

Spending the time talking about the game, Troy and I had been waiting for almost three hours before Lucius and Draco appeared. During that time, I heard some witches whisper about a Mark having been conjured at the Cup which confirmed my suspicions. Well, as far as you can trust some witches spreading gossip.

Draco hugged me when he saw me. Apparently he had been as worried about me as I had been about him. Lucius on the other side just thanked Troy very formally about taking me here, then grabbed mine and Draco's arm and disappared. Without a warning! For the second time on a day!

"Seriously, a warning please" I said when we appeared in the living room in the manor but Lucius didn't reply. Instead, he fixed me with cold eyes.

"We've decided that you will go to Hogwarts this term." Well, that came unexpected. "What?" This couldn't just be a coincidence. "Has this anything to do with what just happened?" It had to, but of course Lucius denied it. "But you do know that Harry freaking Potter is at the same school and if I am correct, would even in the same year as med! What if somebody found out who I...?" "Stop it!" he raised his voice which he did very rarely. He took a breath to calm himself down. "This is not open for discussion, you will go to Hogwarts. Narcissa will take you to Diagon Alley tomorrow to buy your supplies." There was finality in his voice that conveyed an end to any further argument. "Fine" I glared at him, then turned around and stormed to my room. 'What did he think? If anyone found out that I am HIS daughter, they would imprison me on the spot.' Absently, I rubbed over the glove covering my mark and let me drop onto the bed.

"May I come in?" a voice politely asked, Draco. I nodded. He entered, sat down and put a hand around me. "Hey, I know what you are feeling, but... come on, think about it. You have managed to cover up your arm until now, even at the Cup! And you can't just spend your entire time hiding, hoping no one will ever find out. So just be careful and nothing will happen." He snorted. "Even with Potter around!"  
Of course he was right, I might not want it and I would prefer to stay at the manor, but he was right. "Thanks" I mumbled and poked him in the side. "You're welcome" He rubbed my back briefly and then stood up and went to the door. "Door open or closed?" "Close it please" I needed time to think and to process things.  
After he had left, I reached into my pocket and took out a photograph. It showed two young infants, a boy and a girl with brown hair. They were laughing. Tears welled up my eyes. I missed my brother who was taken from me. I hadn't told Draco that I'd once had a brother, because this was personal, too personal. That's why Draco was obvious to the fact that there was a further reason I was so upset about Hogwarts: I had to be around teachers who were known members of the elite that had battled against Voldemort. They could have been there when my brother was killed;  
Rookwood told me about it, one of them could have cast the curse... That was the worst thing, being around and taught by the potential murders of my brothers. I locked the door and cast a Muffliato on it. Then the tears started falling.

-Time break-

"Miss Hale has to wake up" a tiny little voice ripped me from my light sleep. It was Minny's, our house elf. She had been working at the manor since Draco's third year, so about a year now. Groaning, I stood up. "What the..." I was about to follow my normal morning routine when I noticed the dark mark on my forearm. It's not like it had appeared out of nowhere, but it seemed a notch darker than yesterday. Deciding that I could worry about it later, I got ready. Today was a Saturday and normally, I wake up earlier during the week.

That being said, therefore I need to refuel myself properly during Saturdays and Sundays. Getting up early next week would therefore be difficult.  
'Right, Diagon's Alley today' I mumbled and went downstairs to have breakfast with the rest of the Malfoy's. Lucius had already departed and Draco groggily explained that he had gone to the ministry to manage things with my technically first day at school. During breakfast, I read the newspaper describing how the Death eaters actually ran from the dark mark. Seriously?! This day just kept becoming weirder and weirder.

After breakfast, we went to Diagon's Alley. And as Draco and I would be in the same year, we just bought everything twice. I even considered buying an animal but decided against it. Slytherin's heir as I was, I preferred snakes and I made a mental note to inquire one of the teachers if that would be possible when I was at school. Enough money, I had, since the Malfoy's had created my own bank account filled now with money from the Malfoy's, the Black's and the Riddle's vault creating an admirable amount of cash.

So after a short trip to Gringotts to get some of that money we went to several places to buy books for potions, charms, history of magic (I mentally groaned at that one), defense against the dark arts and a few more. "Hey, lady, would you like some medallions to protect that little precious neck of yours?" A street merchant held up various necklaces adorned with colorful crystals but the Malfoy sneer I had perfected after having seen it too often shut him up. Heading on, I treated myself with a maintenance set for brooms and new anti-slipping gloves. I firmly planned on playing Quidditch in one of the four teams at Hogwarts because now, it would be a lot more difficult to go to the professional practices.

Damn, with all that has been going on, I hadn't found the time to write my friends! So I set 'Sort out Quidditch practice' and 'write letter to Jinx and Sarah' on my To-Do-List for the next days.  
The next days passed in a rush which may have been because I spent my time reading the school books.

I already knew some of the stuff but I found it interesting what different authors wrote on the same subject. In charms for example, Victor Eggstein wrote that for a Mandrake potion, one should add the snake skin after the mistletoe while Xavier Wingald swore on the inverse. No wonder Draco told stories about so many people screwing up their potions, the instructions simple were wrong!

-Time skip-

On the 1st September, Draco and I were accompanied to King's Cross by our respective parents or adoptive-parents though they had never adopted me formally. After a not so pleasant experience, when was side-by-side apparation ever pleasant, we re-appeared at a secluded area reserved for just that purpose. "Draco, Kiera" Lucius' voice was sharp, "Behave according to your heritage, understood?" Wow, most sensitive good-bye ever, not that I needed one. We both nodded and after Draco had received a short hug, he was always closer to his parents, we gave our trunks and brooms to one of the train's staff and boarded.

"Come on, let's find the other's" Draco instructed and we went looking. Oh, I was so not looking forward to spending the time with Crabbe and Goyle. But at least they were mostly silent whereas a certain Parkinson couldn't keep her mouth shut. When Draco stopped, I assumed he had found his fellow Slytherins, but the sight of the three people which were actually in the seats shocked me. I put on a cold mask, despite me boiling inside. "Saint-Potter, Weasel, beaver" He actually had the guts to tell me about staying under the radar and the first thing he did was to go to freaking Potter's compartment with me?! Potter, who had been the reason why my father hadn't been there to protect my brother!

"What do you want, Malfoy?" the read-head, obviously a Weasley fumed. That just kept becoming better and better, Weasley's father was part of the Order, so it meant he could have been _there_ when it happened. Ok, I had to restrain myself there, apart from the looks he was not his father. "Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean – they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety .." When I caught sight of what he was holding in his hands I smirked. Well, he was right there! "Shut up, Malfoy" Potter interrupted and stood up. Boy, he had a short temper! "And who's the girlfriend of yours? First day of school and already found one, huh?"

Weasley looked at me. I looked him up and down. "None of your business." But Draco jumped at the opportunity of boasting. "Her name's Hale. Kiera Hale, I doubt you would recognize her given your standards. And she's my step-sister, so... _gross!_ " This obviously meant nothing to the witch, Granger if I recalled correctly, but not to the other two. While Potter frowned, trying to recall the name, Weasley remembered it. "Bloody hell, you were at the World Cup! In the Irish national team!"

At this, Potter perked up as well, apparently forgetting about the blonde in front of him. "You play in the National team?!How did you manage that?" He questioned disbelievingly. "Yeah, only the best get in there!" That was Draco again and slowly I became annoyed. So, as I obviously wasn't a part of the conversation, leaving would be the best option; I shot Potter a look that conveyed nothing less than hatred, glared at Weasley, nodded at Granger and left to look for another compartment. After that episode I definitely would sit in another one that would not include a certain Malfoy! Surprisingly, I found one that was still empty and let myself fall in one seat.

Five minutes later, the door opened and Draco glanced in. "Are you coming, the others are a few compartments down the gangway?" Seriously, was he completely daft about what was going on?! That was all it took. "Draco Lucius Malfoy, do you seriously dare asking that after what you just pulled off. You almost dragged me into a conversation with Harry Potter and I haven't even stepped foot into the castle?!" He seemed surprised by my words and by now, I was on my feet, my voice dangerously calm.

"No, I really prefer not spending the ride with you, so _get out! Now!_ " I emphasized the last three words, then proceeded to shut the door in front of his nose and closed the curtain over the small window so he couldn't see me anymore. That felt good! Sitting back down again, I scolded myself that I had forgotten to bring any of my books from the trunk to keep myself busy, so I made due. Pulling out my wand, I conjured a quill and some parchment and began writing to Jinx and Sarah, I had totally forgotten to tell them about what had happened.

 _Hey my fellow Quidditch girls,_

 _I am sorry I write you just now, but the past few days have been kind of  
confusing for me. So, where should I start? Oh, I know: After Lucius fetched me from  
the Tournament; he just announced that I would be going to  
Hogwarts! Out of nowhere! So I don't know whether I can train  
with you guys this year. I know, I know! But that's not everything! Imagine,  
just minutes ago, Draco introduced me to Harry Potter, of all people! Yes,  
you read right, Harry f***ing Potter! I think you understand why  
I am so freaked out about this! Anyway, I am sitting here in the Hogwarts  
Express now, fuming! But enough from me, how are you both? I  
heard from Troy that you made it out of our tent unharmed,  
shame for the celebration, really!_

Love you both,

 _Kiera_

I was really lucky I had two friends like that who knew who I was, so they should get the gist of my letter.

They had seen a glimpse of the mark during showering and when they had asked and been told the truth, instead of telling everyone and hating me for it, they had just hugged me and went on with it like nothing had happened. Well, not exactly, of course they had some questions and we talked about it, but they had never treated me differently.

I scanned the letter again for any unwanted clues I might have given away and then sealed it; I would send it with the school owls later or tomorrow. Having nothing to do for the rest of the train ride, glancing out of the window proved to be quite a distraction. About a quarter of an hour into the ride, the door opened and a group of two guys and two girls peeked in. "Sorry, are these seats still free?" one of then inquired. By the looks of them, they were most likely Hufflepuff: All of them smiled, and they waited politely for an answer before entering; hell they didn't even set a foot over the tiny edge on the floor marking the border between compartment and corridor.

"Sure" While my be angry at the moment, I was still reasonable enough to not let out my frustration on anyone I met and maybe, just maybe, I would find someone to talk to during the ride. Said conception proved to be a fatal misconception because it resulted in me spending the time with two couples snogging each other senseless. Sighing, I put my head against the cool glass. 'Please let this ride pass quickly…'

Three hours later the point was reached where one could have deliberately stunned oneself to escape enduring the moans which continuously became louder, so I got up and exited the small room. Having no idea how long this ride would take and nobody having had bothered to give newcomers like me any information about it, asking someone seemed reasonable to do! So, I walked in the direction the train was heading which would sure enough take me to the conductor. "Something from the trolley, dear?" an old lady inquired which I politely declined. After a few meters, it was actually pretty amusing to look through the middle-sized windows into the compartments to see what was going in there; I did so while passing, of course, a stalker I was not.

"Umpf!" Crashing into something dressed in black interrupted my thoughts: In front of me stood a round-faced boy who was already dressed in his school attire.  
"Sorry" he apologized. "I was looking for my toad, Trevor, have you seen one?" Shaking my head, an idea popped up. "Hey, do you by any chance when we will be arriving?"  
The boy looked slightly startled, "Yeah, it's another 5 hours or so, why?"

"Well, the compartment I chose is currently occupied by two not very quiet couples." Judging by the blood that shot in his face he understood. He then seemed to gather his courage and looked at me instead of focusing out of the window or at the floor.  
"You can sit with Luna and me, if you want, I mean it's...well... we're not the best..."  
"Sure, that would be nice!" Anything seemed better at the moment than going back to where I came from. Then, I remembered something and took out my wand causing the boy to take a step back.

I gave him a strange look. "Accio Trevor" Hopefully, there was no boy with the same name on the train or else this could seriously backfire. But apparently, there wasn't as the only thing flying towards us was a green and quacking toad. "Thanks" the boy beamed as he took it in his hands. "By the way, I am Neville; Neville Longbottom" That rang a bell, his parents were tortured by, well, my mother. After having visited her a few times in Azkaban I could tell that the prison had made her go crazy and the occasional visits had soon ceased. "Hi, I am Kiera Hale, nice to meet you!" His eyes went wide.  
"Kiera Hale, THE Keira Hale who plays Quidditch?!" That definitely wasn't be the last time this question would be asked, so getting used to it was a need-to.  
"Yeah, so in which compartment are you?" He pointed a behind himself. "A few further down." As all my stuff unfortunately was in the trunk below me and all my other possessions were on me, there was no need to go back, not even to say goodbye; Surely, they wouldn't miss me either.

Neville led the way and we entered a compartment occupied only by a single blond-haired who was reading a bright yellow magazine. She introduced herself as Luna Lovegood and after about ten minutes into the conversation, it was clear that the girl was a little crazy, but also smart and nice. During the rest of the train ride we talked about Hogwarts, what had happened during their previous years and about ourselves which lead to a very interesting conversation about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. Though I had never heard of them, it didn't mean that they didn't exist, it's a magical world for god's sake! Being occupied, the time passed relatively fast and we had to hurry to get into our Hogwarts uniforms upon arrival. Thanks to the magic, there was a three in a fitting size for each of us in the storage shelves above.

When we exited, the castle couldn't yet be seen. Instead, a tall, bearded man waved a lantern. "First years over here! First years to me!" Not being entirely sure whether I should go with the rest of the guys in my age; so I walked over to the giant.

"Excuse me, mister, I am Kiera Hale. This is my first year at Hogwarts though I am going to be in the fourth grade. Should I come with you?" Looking down, the man replied in a deep, yet gentle voice. "Yeah, I reckon so. By the way, I am Hagrid. Just Hagrid." He then resumed calling out for first-years. After everyone was there and the head-count was right, he led us to the shore of a large lake. There, a couple of wooden boats were floating. Separating us into groups of three, we climbed on board, careful not to get wet and as soon as everyone was ready, they started moving. It was a unique experience, to phrase it carefully, especially when the illuminated castle came into sight. A couple of "Oohs" and "Aahs" could be heard from behind me. After arriving, an elderly witch who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, welcomed us. At the name, I involuntarily shuddered. It was well known that she had been closely affiliated with the Order of the Phoenix as had most of the staff. That thought forced me back into my cold exterior and I sent her a glare which she didn't receive, due to the darkness. As it turned out, being in thought results in missing half of the welcoming speech but I honestly didn't care about that now. Being in the Hogwarts Express had created a few moments of blissful unawareness of what was to come. This had now been shattered.

McGonagall went on to lead us to a big, wooden door. Opening a few seconds later, it revealed four different tables crammed with students and food and levitating candles and torches lighting the scene. Up front, there was a table which obviously belonged to the teachers. Unless some students did really have to repeat a lot of years! The thought caused me to grin inwardly, nothing showing on the outside; my mask having been perfected over years being spent with the Malfoys.

A few questioning and curious glances were directed my way as we headed to a chair with a hat on top of it. I guess transfer students weren't seen here very often... Once there, McGonagall walked up the stairs and causing a few gasps from the children next to me, the hat began to sing by using what appeared to be a gap as a mouth.

 _In times of old, when I was new,_

 _And Hogwarts barely started,_

 _The founders of our noble school_

 _Thought never to be parted._

 _United by a common goal,_

 _They had the selfsame yearning_

 _To make the world's best magic school_

 _And pass along their learning._

 _"Together we will build and teach"_

 _The four good friends decided._

 _And never did they dream that they_

 _Might some day be divided._

 _For were there such friends anywhere_

 _As Slytherin and Gryffindor?_

 _Unless it was the second pair_

 _Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw,_

 _So how could it have gone so wrong?_

 _How could such friendships fail?_

 _Why, I was there, so I can tell_

 _The whole sad, sorry tale._

 _Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those_

 _Whose ancestry's purest."_

 _Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose_

 _Intelligence is surest."_

 _Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those_

 _With brave deeds to their name."_

 _Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot_

 _And treat them just the same."_

 _These differences caused little strife_

 _When first they came to light._

 _For each of the four founders had_

 _A house in which they might_

 _Take only those they wanted, so,_

 _For instance, Slytherin_

 _Took only pure-blood wizards_

 _Of great cunning just like him._

 _And only those of sharpest mind_

 _Were taught by Ravenclaw_

 _While the bravest and the boldest_

 _Went to daring Gryffindor._

A polite applause finished the song though I had the feeling something was off about it. Nevertheless, McGonagall stepped up.

"I will now read out each of your names in alphabetical order. When you hear your name, you come up, sit on that chair and put on the hat. It will sort you into your house where you will be living during the next years." She paused and looked at us briefly, read out the first name. "Aberlot Amelie!" A small girl with light brown hair shyly walked towards the chair and sat down and after a brief moment, the hat announed "Ravenclaw" Behind me, a table broke into cheers; I wondered how else we were supposed to know which table to go to anyway, what if one house was in a joking mood and just cheered every time.

But from what Draco had narrated, House rivalry was of upmost importance to the pupils and cheering for another one most likely wouldn't happen. It went on with Charlington Ben, Dramura Holly and after Kensing Mark I zoned out a little. But not enough to not notice the crowd around me getting smaller and smaller until it was only me left. "Hale Kiera" Confidently I headed towards the chair while maintaining an expressionless and cold mask and sat down. As I did, a few whispers erupted behind me, but I couldn't hear them. Most likely, they recognized me as a Quidditch Player. McGonagall didn't even receive a glare from me, that's how I pulled myself together!

The hat had hardly touched my head when I heard a deep voice inside my head.

"Easy, there, there's no need to block some parts of your mind, I won't harm you, little girl."

I furrowed my brow, I hadn't done anything like that. "What do you mean?"

"Ah, I see, a natural, just think of letting me in and everything will work" Well, there wasn't much of a choice, the sorting had to be done, so I did as the hat had asked.

"Ah, that's better now. I see, I see... Hale isn't your real name, is it, Riddle?" He must have felt my shock. "Don't worry, this is strictly between you and me. So, what do we have here? Courage, yess and a lot of curiosity and a splendid mind! But you also seek revenge and are cunning, a difficult choice, indeed. But where to put you? I know!..."

 **Hey, big chapter now! Please R &R, that't the only way I can improve. By the way, that's probable my second or third fanfiction that I seriously write, so please don't judge too harshly. Thanks and enjoy (probably should have put that part at the beginning...)**


	4. After the sorting

„Slytherin!" The words echoed around and before they were silenced, the table on the left side erupted into cheers and clapping. Especially Draco, who may or may not exaggerate because this was his way of apologizing…; nevertheless, he most likely would be forgiven tomorrow.

Standing up, I placed the hat back on the wooden chair and confidently strode over to my future housemates who shuffled together and politely offered me a seat.

But the sense of friendliness almost immediately cracked as their ulterior motive was revealed, because before I could even greet them, sentences like "You were amazing against Romania!", "Didn't you play in the finales?" and "Can I have your autograph?" were thrown at me in rapid succession, leaving no time for an answer.

I, in return, was growing more and more frustrated by those questions. Granted, they were expected to come but surely not at every time and everywhere! So I stayed silent glared at them coldly which seemed to convey the message and they shut up.

"So, now that everyone has found their place, there are important announcements to be made." I heard Dumbledore's voice for the first time in my life. The authority in his voice silenced the hall immediately. Very impressive, admittedly. Understanding, why the bearded wizard was so successfully manipulative flashed through me.

"First of all, I would like to remind you that the Forbidden Forest is to be treated according to its name, which means it's off bound for all of you! Mr. Filch has also asked me to remind you that all items on the list which can be found on his office's door are forbidden."

So far, nothing important, though the forest sounded interesting. Maybe there are more books about it in the library… I wouldn't have anything against a practical experience either, if you know what I mean?

"Furthermore I have the duty to tell you that there won't be a Quidditch House Cup this year!" Not that triggered a reaction! Almost everyone seemed to be angry at these words, myself included. Well, I wasn't really angry, more annoyed and disappointed because that meant that Quidditch would most likely have to go on without me for a year.

One pupil even went so far as to shout out whether the headmaster was serious about this! And, of course he was from Gryffindor…! Dumbledore simply chuckled.

"Indeed I am, Mr. Weasley." Suddenly, the door opened just in the moment when thunder growled and a man walked in. My breath hitched and my face became white of hate. So far, I've only heard of him, but there was no mistaking who was approaching the teacher's table, his electric blue eye swirling around and his wooden foot clanking on the ground.

Mad-Eye Moody! From what former members of the death eaters had told me, he was the one leading the task force to fight against Dolohov and When the crowd (definitely not me, I was fuming) had finally calmed down so he could make himself heard, he continued.

"May I introduce to you our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody!" Tentative applause, although my hands didn't move. "Where was I? Ah..I am sure that you all are interested in the reasons for the lack of Quidditch this year…" A few concurring murmurs.

"I have the honour of announcing that Hogwarts will be the host of the Triwizard Championship!" The following disbelieving silence was broken by more disbelieving shout outs, whispers and cheers. Looking across the hall, I noticed that Draco looked smug. Had he known about this? And if so, why hadn't he told me about it?! Well, I would just have to ask him later.

Gradually, I tuned out the rest of what Dumbledore said and let my gaze wander over the hall. The people that were familiar were Neville Longbottom who, to my utter disbelief, was in Gryffindor, Luna Lovegood in Ravenclaw and, of course, Potter, Weasley and Granger in Gryffindor. But other than that, no one seemed familiar at the first glance. Well, apart from the Weasleys distinct by their hair!

When he ended his speech, bowls with food appeared in front of us much to our pleasure. There hadn't been any lunch in the train, so I dug in to refuel my energy and was content on dwelling in my own thoughts.

Unfortunately, the boy on my right didn't think so and grinned at me.

"Hello, I am Marcus Flint, nice to meet you!" He extended a hand which was slightly awkward as he was next to and not in front of me.

"Kiera Hale" The short answer and the lack of my hand grasping his should have been be enough of an indicator that my interest in talking to him right now was close to zero.

"So, is it true what other people say about you?" Apparently he wasn't that smart to get the hints, but on the other side it interested me what was talked about behind my back.

"And what do they say about me?"

"That you play Quidditch in the Irish National Team and are very smart…" I felt a hand on my leg and hissed. Was he trying to flirt with me?!

"If you don't get your hand off me in three seconds…" My voice wasn't a whisper and neither was it particularly loud, more like a warning hiss and by now I was sure that some Slytherins were listening while pretending the opposite. Seriously, why didn't they intervene, didn't they have any manners?! No, wait, that was perfect!

"Thank you, Marcus" Letting out a very un-Kiera-like giggle, my left hand slowly moved towards my wand and pointed it at his leg. A short swish and a silent incantation later, Flint muffled a scream.

"Oh, dear, are you ok?" I asked in a cold voice and went back to eating; ignoring the glare Flint threw at me. Needless to say, he didn't attempt to pick up the _conversation_ where we left it and judging by the glances, the surrounding Slytherins looked me differently now and kept silent as well. Hopefully, they had learned their lesson.

After dinner, Dumbledore dismissed us after wishing everyone a good night. Following the prefects to our respective dorms I tried to remember the way back. Draco had advised me to do so as he himself had lost the way more than once back in his first year and it took up almost my whole attention to remember the turns we took, when we used which staircase and how they moved. Consequently, the walk was quite quiet, well, apart from the male prefect lecturing us about Slytherin pride.

"Remember to show unity. All other houses are already biased against us, so we have to be united and resist them together. If you have problems amongst each other, resolve them in private. Honestly, I don't care how you behave towards the other houses; just make sure you don't get caught. Our head of house, Professor Snape is quite lenient in this aspect, but he's the only one amongst the teachers being like this…"

He went on advising us to carry ourselves with pride, don't be caught talking friendly with blood traitors or Mudbloods or never to go anywhere alone because of the rivalry between Slytherin and the other three houses.

Finally, when we arrived at a dark hallway in the dungeons seemingly leading into nowhere he told us the most creative password ever created ("Salazar") causing the wall to shift allowing us entrance. Stepping in, the sight that greeted us was a rather big common room decorated entirely in our house colours.

"You can find any important information including the password for the week and a list who your room-mates are on the blackboard over there." the prefect explained causing the first-years to immediately run over there and thus leaving no place for anyone else, including me. So instead, I spotted Draco over in the corner talking to a dark skinned wizard who I recognized immediately and walked over.

"Draco, Zabini" The boys looked up from their conversation.

"Hey, Kiera" the latter greeted. Zabini was one of Draco's best friends and one of the few who occasionally talked to me at the manor. That, however, didn't mean I liked him, I'd prefer the verb 'tolerate' because of his constant and not-so-amusing-anymore flirting.

"You look as dashing as always!" Not bothering to reply I turned to Draco.

"Why didn't you tell me about the tournament?" The somehow smug look on his face reminded me that I had spoken to him despite our...disagreement. Nevertheless, he answered.

"What, father didn't tell you?"

"No, obviously not!" That wiped the smirk off his face. He knew that his father and I didn't get along well. Well, that was an understatement. And sadly, he always protected his father, why he was always doing it was still beyond my comprehension.

"Just tell me the next time, ok?!" He nodded and I turned around and was about to in order to look up my future room-mates when his voice caused me to turn around. "Are you still mad because of Potter?"

My voice betrayed a little humour when I said "Until tomorrow". I was faintly aware of Zabini asking Draco why I would be mad at his arch-enemy but Draco apparently just waved it off. Zabini didn't know of my heritage and there was no need for him to do so. When I looked at the list,

I found my name at the relative beginning and my heard dropped. Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson. I didn't personally know the first one but the latter definitely rang a bell.

She had visited the manor a few times, after all she was to marry my kind-of step-brother one day and hadn't made a show out of the fact that she didn't like me. I had the distinct feeling that she was jealous of me or suspected us of having a relationship of romantic sorts! At the thought, I had to suppress a snort. Well, better get it over with...

And, just as I predicted, the reunion went all but well. One should have taken a picture of Pansy's face when I had walked in the room and announced that I would be living in the same room for a whole year!

"What are you doing here? Get out!" Well, so much for my not too high expectations that maybe we could behave civilly.

"Well, as it just so happens, Parkinson, this is where I will be living during the next year" Honestly, why did I still bother to talk to her especially when asked a question like that? Sometimes I didn't understand myself...

"You can't be serious?!" So, that's! It was half past ten in the evening, this was my first day at Hogwarts, it had been exhausting and...I was tired...So the last thing that would be tolerated today was a thick-headed Slytherin with a boyfriend-complex!"

Fixing her with my the best glare I could muster at this time my voice dropped to a volume merely louder than a whisper.

"I am not in the mood to discuss this now, so if you would please shut up so that I can unpack my things and go to sleep?!" Seriously, why could no Slytherin take a hint?!

"I am going to talk to Professor Snape and..." That was about as far as she got until her mouth moved without a syllable escaping, courtesy of my wand. The least she could do now was to glare at me, well, unless she had learned how to spell wordlessly which was doubtful. "Anything else?" I said, directed to Greengrass. Better to bury any open animosity right now on the spot. She shook her head.

"Good" I spent the rest of the evening unpacking under the hateful glares from Parkinson, getting ready and going to sleep so I wouldn't be too tired for classes tomorrow.

 **So, any idea what should/will happen in the classes over the next days? Please, please review! Thanks!**


	5. Lessons

,It's Monday.' That's what went through my head when the bell of the clock tower ripped us from our sleep. I wasn't as pessimistic about it as Parkinson who groaned in the bed next to me, still half asleep, but neither felt I as enthusiastic as Greengrass, who literally jumped out of her bed and loudly screeched "Good Morning everyone" in a high-pitched voice.

I felt just indifferent about this morning and my first day of actual school. Learning had always been kind of enjoyable for me, as long as I liked the subject which usually was the case when it was useful; not useful in a normal sense but useful for me. And thus, I wasn't that excited for Divination and Herbiology, but Care of Magical Creatures almost made up for it. _Almost._

But the best part was, that none of the teachers of today's subjects actively fought during the last war, but rather passively. So today, I could put that sorrow aside.

"Daphne, shut up!" a still tired Parkinson drawled and buried her head in the pillow. I snorted, amused at the similarities she shared with Draco, but decided to be civil and bit back a comment; well, civility wasn't really the deciding factor, it was rather the fact that she would terrorize my brother with it and interpret ridiculous meaning into that.

"Morning Greengrass" There was no need for me to be mean to her; so far she hadn't been either. Well, of course, she hadn't had a real opportunity yet either, but still. The other witch who was still in bed was another thing.

I put on my school uniform and was amazed that its comfort hadn't been noticed by me yesterday. I put the fault on the circumstances. Back at the Manor, it had always been "Dress like a lady" here and "Put on something that suits your status" there!

Why they, especially Narcissa had thought it to be necessary while basically being hidden away was beyond me. But I wasn't paid to think about that. Well, there was no pay at all, but you get the point!

When I stepped out of our dorm, there wasn't anyone in the common room yeT; they really should have added "sleepy" to the character descriptions of our house. But anyway, I didn't have any real friends yet so what was the point in waiting for them? So I went ahead.

Upon entering the hall, after actually stepping into a trap step, my earlier assumption that only Slytherins were addicted to beds was proved wrong as only about 10 students drooled over their cornflakes. No, seriously, a Hufflepuff literally slept, his head resting on the bowl. Disgusting!

The only other Slytherin at the table was a scrawny boy who, no joke there, looked kind of like a rabbit… So, go or don't go sit there, that was the question. Well, couldn't harm making contacts, may help me later on.

"Kiera Hale" I introduced myself. The boy looked up,

"Theodore Nott" Vaguely, I recalled Draco mentioning him once.

"You're Draco's sister?"

"Yeah, kind of" was my answer and thankfully, he didn't inquire further. Well, if he did, he would have heard the tragic story of a distant relative of the Malfoy's who had died because of dragon pocks and left a poor daughter, me.

Theodore overall seemed like the silent type, but that was fine, going around and talking to people wasn't really my thing after the rare contact with others for the past few years. Rare, but it existed.

So we spent the breakfast in silence while the students slowly began dropping in. Flint chose to sit on the other side of the table which caused me to grin wolfishly, a grin he most definitely didn't return.

With the black clouds hovering above us from the day before, we were just occasionally interrupted by a student from another house who wanted an autograph. As I felt lenient today, the first few requests were granted (in my never ending generosity), but after the tenth one I started declining.

Unfortunately, it seemed that now that they knew that others had gotten an autograph, they all wanted one, so when it became too much, I left the hall as a final solution to evade the mindless horde. Looking at the big clock above the entrance to the great hall, there wasn't much time left until our first lesson; heading to Divination seemed like a good idea.

It actually took me a second to find the hidden ladder leading to a room above and climbed up.

"What the he..." I mumbled under my breath which showed to be a almost futile mistake as I inhaled more of the smell than intended. It wasn't bad per se, but this time, quantity most definitely topped quality.

The solution was my life-saver: a bubblehead charm. Now with one less distracting factor, the room presented it to me in all its... awkwardness?! There were big cushions instead of chairs, multiple smoking sticks were polluting the air and the visual range was visibly inhibited.

"Hello my dear" a voice as smoky as the room itself startled me from behind. Unconsciously I had taken a few steps into the room. The voice turned out to be a woman dressed in out-of-the-book-crazy-divination clothes: a too big scarf, ridiculously huge glasses and a weird hairdo!

"Could you please remove the charm around your head, it would block the waves of the future..." During the small pause afterwards, a thousand thoughts flashed through my mind: From basic survival urges not to do so, to less than nice thoughts about Trelawney. In the end, I gave in.

Needlessly to mention, that wasn't my favourite option, but there was no real choice, was there? Taking one last, deep breath, a wave of my wand removed the protection from the gas waiting for me. I coughed. Again.

Slowly, my lungs seemed to get acclimated to the air and the burning in my lungs stopped.

"My dear, what is your name?" Trelawney inquired.

"Kiera Hale" Her eyes widened in excitement.

"Oh, I see it, wait..." she dramatically raised her arm and pointed into nowhere.

"Great challenges await you in the future, be strong and you will pass them with ease..." Did she expect me to cheer in awe or what?! I, myself, could have made that prediction.

In this second, the passage from a book I had read a while back came back to me: "It takes approximately one second for a person to judge another". Well, if this was true, the obviously distraught woman in front of me had made more than a sufficient first impression on me. Little clue: it was not a good one.

"I'll go sit down so I can... get in sync with the vibrations" was my admittedly not best answer, which, to my utter astounding, made Trelawney nod encouragingly.

"Good, I see you have the thing it take to be a true seer, use it wisely..." Nodding and not bothering with an answer, I turned around and sat down.

When the whole class had arrived, she began explaining that we would spend our time with reading out of tea leaves, crystal bowly and something else.

But at that point, my transfiguration book was out on the table and with a quick wave of my wand when the seer was looking away, disguised as the actual book we were supposed to bring.

She noticed, of course, that I was reading, but seemed satisfied that at least one of the Slytherins seemed to show interest in her subject. Boy, this couldn't end well...

During the rest of the period, Trelawney made us look at star charts and predict our own future based on the constellation of the planets. I, not being overly religious or fond of those methods, found it non-surprisingly utterly useless. In my opinion, planets didn't care whether somebody burns his hand or finds love!

"Hey, you know you will die a painful death by a gold fish next week?" Draco, who was my partner oked.

"Nooo, you are wrong, Merkur" I pointed at the planet "is closer to Venus than to Uranus, that means the cause of death will be... boredom".

Unfortunately for us, our teacher decided to come by just at this moment.

"My dears, let me see what your future looks like. Miss Hale?" Putting on my best poker face, I started.

"The angle between Pluto and Mars suggests that someone is going to be fatally injured and will, most likely die as a consequence."

Really, from the things I've seen so far, Trelawney was a somebody-has-to-die-fetishist and the following reaction wasn't disappointing.

"Intriguing, you are right, indeed. So.." She raised her voice "be careful what you do."

The whole class sniggered at her announcement, the fact that she didn't have a lot of respect amongst the students obvious. Another fifteen minutes of making up ridiculous predictions and the class finally was over.

When the bell rang and freed us from our fate, the professor held me back until everyone else was outside.

"Miss Hale, I couldn't help but notice that you seem inspired by the art of reading the future." If this was really the case then, in this instant, a vision should have told me to get out of there, or better, to run.

"Now.. I've never really done this before, but if you want to gain a deeper understanding of this rare gift I believe you have been given I would be willing to teach you outside our regular schedule?"

Aaaand... there it was. I don't know how she jumped from my not really existing interest to me having a gift for divination but she was most certainly wrong. Now, this instant marked the first time I really was glad to be of Slytherin's heritage, because luckily my brain provided me with a reasonable excuse. A temporary one at least.

"I am truly sorry Professor, but this is my first lesson and I'd really first see how much time I have left. And, of course with you being a teacher you have to understand that I'd really want to do good in other subjects as well, don't you?" That seemed to have done the trick although there was a slight disappointed undertone in her voice when she next spoke.

"Of course I do... but my offer still stands. And a gift like you've been given shouldn't be wasted." I nodded, said my goodbyes and left. What a woman! Obviously she had believed to see something in me, but in my view, she was slightly crazy. At least one thing was for certain: I wasn't planning on spending my time with her apart from the regular lesson.

"Hey, what did the crazy bat want from you?" Draco had waited for me at the bottom of the ladder, a curious expression on his face. It was an expression hardly anyone saw on him, most of them were given the famous Malfoy-frown.

"Apparently she thought I was 'gifted'" he snorted, "and wanted to give me extra lessons to develop my very special talent" the sentence literally dropped with sarcasm.

"And of course, you agreed" he joked.

"Well, how could I let such a brilliant opportunity slip?!" We joked about it during the time to the greenhouses where my first lesson in herbiology was to take place.

When we entered, most of the students were already there and we took a place next to Zabini and Theodore. "Hi" we said and they nodded back.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen" the professor made a nice and gentle expression. She had a round face that was decorated with a genuine smile showing that she really enjoyed teaching her subject.

"What is her name?" I hadn't memorized it and the timetable was in my bag.

"Sprout" Theo whispered back and turned his attention back to the lesson. Apparently, he liked Herbiology.

After listening to her for a few minutes during which she explained what we would do during this lesson, I found my opinion confirmed: While it may be useful to know how to groom different plants, it wasn't something for me, too much green and dirt.

At Malfoy manor, I had flowers in my room, but after I'd tried to water them with my wand, it had died. Narcissa had been furious, it was a rare specimen of _stirps aliqua_ , and never allowed me to care for them. So I definitely lacked experience.

Today, we re-potted some plants which were highly poisonous if touched. Furthermore, the smell had the bad habit of addicting people, so they couldn't stop smelling it; not even being able to eat while being fully conscious.

Professor Sprout told us that a few hundred years ago when the plant was first discovered, it was used to making people defenceless and letting them die a slow and painful death.

But they had one weakness: When one stroked the roots, the smell wasn't dangerous anymore.

Sprout divided us into groups and told us to immediately alert her when something happened. Theo and I worked together by default (the others had already partnered up) and admittedly, he really had a knack for this sort of thing. All I had to do was to stroke the plant while he was doing the rest; we actually were one of the first Slytherins to finish.

"10 points for Hufflepuff" But sadly not to first one of the whole class.

"You're really good at this" I told Theo on our way back to the castle.

"Thanks, you too" In front of us, Draco and his two goons were talking. Well, Draco did the talking while Crabbe and Goyle listened. Why he always hung around those two was beyond me, but my sort-of-brother had always been content talking while I listened. Or pretended to do so.

"Well, do you want to work together next time, too?" Nott nodded.

"Sure" Nobody said a further word but we walked side by side to the hall. Lunch was already on the tables and it was amazing how much there was and based on that, there was only one logical explanation for where it came from.

"Do house-elves cook the food?" I asked Nott.

"Sure, you don't think wizards would do that, do you?" Draco sat down next to me out of nowhere.

"Apparently there are hundreds of them somewhere in the castle. Haven't got a clue where though" That would definitely be worth to look into.

Contrary to other pure-blooded wizards, I kind of admired house-elves. A few years ago one named Dobby had shown me a little of their magic and it was admirable how they could surpass boundaries set only for wizards while it was the same way around in only a few matters like conjuring patroni. But those opinions I kept for myself. Not the smartest idea to wear those on my sleeve in a pure-blooded society.

"Kiera?" Draco was looking at me with a concerned expression.

"Sorry, I was just thinking" He raised an eyebrow but didn't press.

"I just asked why you wanted to know".

"Don't you want to know about the place you basically life for years?" He shrugged.

"It's just a castle...!" And that was the end of the topic, at least for him; I on the other hand planned on searching for books about Hogwarts in the library when time allowed it.

When the bell rang again, indicating that the next lesson would start soon, we, that was Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Theo and I made our way through the half-wet grass to Hagrid's hut. I didn't know what to expect of him, Draco had always described him as fat, a half-breed and crazy-in-love with monstrous creatures but he'd seemed rather friendly at the train station.

When we arrived, Hagrid had already begun talking about some animals while other students were looking into wooden crates with evident dislike.

"...you can raise them yourselves. I thought we'd make a project out of it!" the huge man said enthusiastically. Now, in the crates were creatures that, with a lot of imagination resembled lobsters. And they stunk!

"Why exactly should we raise those?!" Draco's voice cut through the sounds of disgust that I could all too well understand after having looked in one of the wooden boxes myself.

"Are they useful at all?" But it turned out that the giant didn't know the answer to it and deflected by telling us to feed them. More and more, the suspicion that the gatekeeper had bred them illegally if he didn't even know what they ate.

I went over to the crates filled with a variety of dead mice, organs and some parts that were not identifiable while the rest of the Slytherins were still refusing to go near those things. Some of the others, mostly Gryffindors grabbed them with their bare hands.

Nooooo, we are not wizards at all...! With my wand in my hand, I levitated a liver over to one of the crates with creatures and dropped it in their middle causing them to throw sparks. Ow, they didn't like that at all! I quickly covered the back of my hand where one of the screwts had burned it.

No, they most definitely hated it! I cursed myself for omitting healing-spells in my studies so I'd have to go to the infirmary to get it fixed. For now, the pain was at least tolerable. 'So back to the beginning!' the voice in my head sounded rather not amused, but at least our effort proved useful. At the end of the lesson, we had discovered that they ate mice, a diversity of bugs and, based on the fact that a Gryffindor was bitten, human flesh as well.

"Hey, want to come to the yard?" Draco walked up to me on our way back.

"Yeah, sure, but I got to run by the infirmary first." I showed him my hand when we arrived at a crossroad.

"Fine, see you later then!" He turned right and vanished around the corner. So, the infirmary was... no idea where...

"Hey, wait" the boy with black hair in front of me turned around. It was Neville.

"H..Hello Kiera" he stumbled.

"Hey, Neville, do you know the way to the infirmary?" He nodded and looked down at where he clutched his hand.

"Well, then, lead the way. The screwts, I guess?".

"Yes, creatures aren't one of my strong subjects... I am more into Herbiology!"

It was surprising how much more at ease he seemed, apparently, he'd lost some of his shyness from back in the train.

"I actually like charms quite a bit, but it's a pity that I don't know any healing charms. Guess a visit to the library is obligatory..." The corridors were empty, apparently most of the students were outside and enjoying the weather.

"Or maybe Madam Pomfrey could show you some." Neville said. That was actually a good idea, if she had the time. And if not, she definitely had some recommendations for books that could help me.

"So, did you have Professor Moody yet?" Neville asked. At the mention of his name, my jaw clenched briefly.

"No, but don't we have Defence against the dark arts together?". He went red and looked at the wall.

"Umm..yes" The little uncomfortable silence ended when we reached the doors to the infirmary and entered. Nobody was there.

"Madam Pomfrey?" I called.

"Coming!" a small and not that sporty looking witch appeared from behind a partition and immediately scanned us from head to toe with her hard but concerned looking eyes.

"What do you need?"

We showed her our hands and she hushed us to sit on one of the beds.

"How did this happen?" she asked while hovering her wand above our injuries which slowly began to heal.

"An accident in Care of Magical Creatures" the mediwitch nodded.

"At least not a Hippogriff attack this time" she mumbled under her breath which caused me to furrow my brow until I remembered the fuss Lucius threw because of it. Neville's lips twitched upward.

"Ermm, I've wondered if you would be willing to teach me some healing charms to give me literature where I could find them" beating around the bush was never my strength and for good matters I added "Just for minor wounds, so you wouldn't be bothered with scratches or something like that anymore".

The matriarch thought for a moment.

"I suppose I could do that. I'll look into some of the old books from my years of study and owl you if I find anything" She finished healing us.

"Thank you" we both nodded and left the wing side by side.

"Heading to the yard?" I asked. Neville shook his head.

"I promised Professor Sprout to help her with something." he said.

"Ok, than... see you. Bye" With that I turned around and went back the same way we'd come here, just barely catching the Gryffindor's reply.

Luckily, the yard was visible from just around the corner Draco had disappeared behind earlier which put me in good mood.

That mood cooled instantly by a hundred degrees when I saw Draco being transformed into a ferret by... nobody else then Moody.

Without thinking, I pulled out my wand and quickened my steps.

"Expelliarmus!" Moody's wand flew out of his hand and landed in my hand. He turned around and I was sure that he'd attack me when I saw his facial expression. Instead, he did the most unexpected thing ever. He laughed, but I didn't lower my wand. How dare he transform my brother!

"Well, Miss Hale, is it? It seems that I wasn't vigilant enough.." He stretched out his hand. "My wand...!" The tension was noticeable, despite his voice being more friendly than accusing.

"What is going on here?!" a new voice joined in; it was Professor McGonagall who was watching us concernedly, her eyes switching between Moody and I, taking in the scenery that was presented to herself.

"Miss Hale, lower your wand!" Begrudgingly, I did as told , but not faster than necessary. And I didn't put it away.

"Now, would you please explain why you apparently threaten a teacher!" her eyes were now completely on me, ignoring Moody. I fumed, now this was my fault?!

"Well, Professor, Moody thought it was funny to transform Draco!" the undertone in my voice spoke from barely restraint anger. Too many memories from my past came to my mind in this second.

"Maybe you ought to ask him instead!" with my other hand I gestured at the scarred man.

"Hiss Hale, calm.."

"No, don't tell me to calm down when a teacher attacks a student."

I raised my wand again, but this time it pointed at the white ferret sitting next to the tree. Almost instantly, a confused looking Draco sat in the same spot where the ferret had been a moment ago.

When he realized what had happened, he scrambled to his feet and basically fled. Still out of myself because of anger, I turned around and stormed away, still fuming and no specific direction in mind; McGonagall's orders to come back or else there "would be consequences" becoming fainter and fainter as I hurried up the stairwell.

 **Please let me know what you think of the story! I noticed that the continuity ist't that correct, but it's AU, so I guess it's ok. Let me know what you want to happen in the next few chapters, I am open to suggestions.**


	6. Room of Requirement and Unforgivables

I didn't know where to go, the only thing in my mind was to get as far away from the yard as possible. I took random stairwells, ignored portraits who either looked at me curiously or whispered behind my back. While walking, I didn't care where I went nor did I see it clearly because my sight was blurred from tears that threatened to fall, but they didn't. Not unless I was somewhere nobody would see me, a place just for me and me alone, far from everyone's eyes.

It wasn't supposed to be this way, what cruel fate had condemned me to live through this awful nightmare. From the beginning it was obvious that it wouldn't be easy, but it never occurred to me that Moody would harm Draco, my brother; the parallels between now and back then far too similar.

I just wanted to be alone, undisturbed. After a while of blindly walking around, there finally was a corridor that seemed fairly remote and was vacant of students. That's where I leaned against the wall and slit down, tears now falling uncontrolled while I hiccupped between sobs that resounded with the blank walls.

Between them, something moved at my back and startled, I stood up, the momentary surprise stopping the salty water falling from my swollen red eyes. Where I had been crouching just seconds ago, a big wooden door now replaced the cold stone of the wall, complicated iron trimmings curling on its surface.

The door didn't look like any other at Hogwarts I'd seen so far, so at this moment, my curiosity won over my sadness; I grabbed the protruding silver door handle and opened it.

My curiosity having been piqued, my feet carried me into the room like in a dream that I was abruptly ripped from when the door fell shut with a soft click; upon having recovered from the shock, my attention turned back to what lay in front of me.

The room was sparely decorated in the Slytherin colors with a green armchair in front of a fire crackling in the fireplace right next to it and keeping the room delightfully warm. The light in the room was pleasantly dimmed and was only slightly illuminating the place, except for a few shelves filled with books, both ancient and new by the looks of them. It was comfortable and I immediately liked this place. Which posed the question, what 'place' was this? An unused old common room? No, too less furniture and there have never been five houses...

Slowly walking over to the shelf, I took in the atmosphere that calmed me down. Letting my gaze sweeping over the book's volumes, I randomly picked one and read it's cover. It was a drama about a young wizard boy who was recruited by the ministry against his will to spy on other countries. It sounded interesting, so I took it and sat down on the armchair in front of the fire and started reading.

While doing so, what had happened with Moody moved further and further into the background of my mind, me being completely captivated by the plot and engulfing chapter after chapter. It was so addicting that after a while, my eyelids became heavier and heavier. Before falling asleep my last conscious thought was that someone I would find the one who had murdered my brother so I could finally find peace in these walls.

Birds were chirping and I felt the warmth of the sun shining on my skin as I slowly woke up and expected Greengrass at any moment to screech her "Good morning" and Parkinson to tell her to shut up. But it didn't happen and... I wasn't lying in a bed at all. Slowly, I opened my eyes. This wasn't the dorm, so where was I?

Steadily, yesterday's events came back to me: Moody transfiguring Draco but right now more importantly, the room I was in. There hasn't been a window in here yesterday, has there? The book was still lying on my lap and I put it aside. I walked over to the window to look outside: there was the forbidden forest and Hagrid's hut and partly, the lake and part of the squid that currently seemed to enjoy itself was visible from up here.

Damn! Suddenly it occurred to me that if the sun had already risen, it was time for class! Had I really slept that long?! Hastily, I grabbed my bag that lay next to the fireplace and left the room. After stepping out, surprisingly, the door vanished again leaving no trace of it having been there at all. What was going on?! A secret room to read? Well, that thought had to wait for later...

I didn't recognize the corridor or my surrounding in general, so I just walked on at a venture while carefully memorizing the way back to the room. I was fairly sure Hogwarts had just disclosed on of its secrets to me and loosing it was no option!

"Hey, excuse me" a ghost floating at the end of the hallway, maybe he could help. It stopped in midair and looked at me with a trace of curiosity, if I wasn't mistaken, waiting for me to come closer which I did.

"And who might you be?" he warily eyed the house crest on my chest and crossed his arms.

"I am sorry to disturb you, Mr. Ghost." this seemed to be a polite enough introduction. "I am Kiera and it seems that I don't know where I am. Could you maybe show me the way to the great hall?"

The ghost studied me for a moment and then seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Oddly friendly for her house..." he mumbled under his breath. "You are in the seventh corridor and if you continue just downwards, you should arrive near the hall. "Thank you". I had covered about half of the way to the closest stairwell when the ghost called "I am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington" before vanishing through the wall, giving no time for an answer.

And, of course, just upon arriving at the Great Hall, the gong signaling the beginning of a new lesson sounded, indicating that I would be late to... to what? I searched through my schoolbag and took out the timetable... Defense against the Dark Arts with...Moody! I swore, in both meanings, that Hogwarts had something against me! But I meant what I'd thought yesterday... the Order was going to pay for my brother's death, determination flowing through my veins like blood while walking towards the classroom.

"...the sooner you know what you are up against, the better" Moody was saying right as I entered the room after knocking briefly causing everyone to look at me; I really didn't like being at the center of attention, it made me feel... unwelcome.

"Miss Hale, how nice of you to join us" That earned him a glare which unfortunately didn't seem to bother him; if anything he seemed amused, though it didn't affect his stern voice. "Sit down and pay attention. We are discussing the Unforgivable curses today. Can you tell us one of them?"

Of course I could, Lucius had told me about them though without a demonstration. He'd explained that it would be too risky for him to perform such a spell because the ministry could partly track the usage of it and former death eaters were monitored more closely than others.

At that moment, the first curse that came to my mind was the one that I wanted one of the Order to suffer.

"The Cruciatus curse" Moody nodded approvingly and took out a spider. "Yes, used by both sides of the war to gather information." He pointed his wand at the animal "Crucio" The spider wringed silently, obviously in such pain that her screams would have filled the room if possible. Something welled up inside my chest at the view while imagining members of the Order undergoing that spell. Moody, McGonagall,.. it was like something I hadn't known existed woke up inside me and I found the emotion that I felt to be... content and longing. Longing for justice to happen to those who had raided the house that day. How many children did they kill while going after my father's followers, how many innocents have suffered?

"Stop it!" a girl shouted, it turned out to be Granger. "Can't you see it's bothering him?" She was looking at Neville whose face was white while his eyes were fixed on the suffering animal; Moody lifted the spell. Everyone was looking at Neville but nobody knew the cause of his reaction. Well, nobody except me, our teacher and perhaps his friends although I don't know whether I would have disclosed it to them if our roles had been reversed.

"The next curse, anybody?" He looked into the round until his eyes came to rest on Weasley's tentatively raised hand. "Yes"

"The.. Imperius curse" he stuttered as if half fearing that even uttering its name would cause the spell to take effect.

"Ahh.. I imaging you father had told you about that one... gave him a hard time a while back." He cursed the spider and let her dance and float around in the air, scaring students in the process. Not even Draco wasn't left alone after yesterday! While doing so, his eyes found mine and I returned the stare, daring him to try anything with me; he seemed to get the message as he terminated the spell.

"That spell was a thorn in the eye of the ministry because a lot of death eaters claimed they only followed... You-know-who because they were under the Imperius spell. Ok... next one!...Miss Granger" The Gryffindor had raised her hand, albeit with hesitation which according to her reputation didn't happen often. Hesitating, I mean.

Her voice was weak but steady when she spoke "Avada Kedavra" and Moody grinned at that one, pointed his wand at the weak animal and with a green flash all life was gone from it. This time, I felt numb as I stared at the happening in front of me, the color draining from my face nonetheless.

"The most famous curse of all... it provides a brief, painless death to its victims while being unblockable. And there has only been one person to survive it and he is sitting amongst us in this very moment..." Now all eyes were resting on Harry as were Moody's. For once the magical blue one didn't move as well.

Somehow, it was quite unjust. Why was he allowed to live while others weren't? What had they done wrong and Potter right?!

"You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it" were the teacher's last words before dismissing the class.

As fast as possible without actually seeming in a hurry I grabbed my bag and walked out of the classroom, vaguely aware that Moody was trying to catch my attention. "Miss Hale, a word"

No, definitely not! The thought that it had become kind of a habit ignoring teachers that passed through my head caused me to smile inwardly.

"What's the deal with her?" A Gryffindor whispered to his friends, it was the Weasley boy talking to Potter. "Don't know, maybe.." The rest of the sentence was drowned by Malfoy placing a hand on my shoulder and walking next to me.

"Hey, I was worried about you! Where've you been?" I quickly thought about telling him but dismissed the idea almost instantly. This was something private, something he needn't know; as I knew him the risk that he'd tell his friends or accidentally slip while boasting too big for my liking.

"I just needed time" That was as close to the truth as he'd get.

"Are you ok?" It hadn't crossed my mind until know that he as well was harmed yesterday. Plus, the question changed the topic. Draco shrugged as if lightly dismissing it but the tenseness in his shoulders gave it away that he was still pissed.

"I can handle it, but my father will definitely hear about this!" That was the Draco I knew!

"Yeah sure" even I knew by now that he mostly said this as a thread and didn't really do it. Dogs that bark don't bite!

"Hey, come on, we're supposed to meet up in our common room" Draco put a hand on my shoulder to stop me from going in the wrong direction.

"Why, I thought we have care of magical creatures today?" he shook his head.

"Snape announced yesterday at dinner that he would have to talk to us all." We made our way towards our dorms.

"You know why?" I asked.

"No, but I bet it has something to do with the tournament!" he sighted. "Wish I could participate though, but Dumbledore had to made the age restriction! It isn't even in the official rules, I checked! Father told me that it was the old fool's condition that it could even take place!" he seemed genuinely upset but I shrugged it off. He had his occasional ten minutes where he would whine about everything.

"Well, you really need the money, don't you" I jokingly bopped him in the shoulder which seemed to help.

"It's not really about the money... it's...I don't know!" He paused. "At least Potter can't participate either!" Ah, that was the reason for it, he wanted to be better than that bloody Potter, as always! We almost crushed into Snape when rounding a corner.

"Apologies, sir" Draco said which was quite unusual for him. He only used it when he respected the people he was talking to. Snape however didn't answer and continued walking in front of us. The result was that the rest of the short walk was spent in silence as Snape apparently wasn't the talkative person either and neither Draco nor I wanted to talk about private matters in front of a teacher, distant family member of not! Well, Draco's family member. Snape had never known about me and Lucius had advised us to distance ourselves from him because he was too close to our headmaster.

"Salazar" the hidden door opened and we crawled in . The common room was already filled with some people, even thought after a quick headcount revealed it wasn't everyone there yet. Snape didn't seem to care however as he immediately silenced the crowd with his sharp announcement.

"Tomorrow at 17 o'clock sharp the champions from the two other participating schools are scheduled to arrive" he seemed to eye us each "I expect everyone of you to be there, dressed in your best school uniforms to represent Slytherin. Detention for a month for everyone who doesn't measure up to my expectations.!" he pronounced every word in the last sentence and paused in between them which had the desired effect before swiftly turning around and leaving.

"Ooh, maybe there'll be some hot guys! Well, at least for some of us" Parkinson screeched, glancing sideways at me. "Shut it, Parkinson!" I said, phrasing the thought that passed in about half of the student's heads. Particularly the male one's.

"Don't think anyone will be interested in you, blood traitor!" she retorted and silence filled the room. Blood traitor was one of the sharpest insults to call a Slytherin, maybe even the worst... and I wouldn't just let this pathetic witch insult me like that!

"Care to repeat that?" my voice was now dangerously low and the girl's face paled. With some satisfaction I noticed that she was intimidated by me, but didn't want to show it.

"Blood traitor! I saw you talking to Longbottom the other day!" she threw at me. I smiled.

"So, talking to another blood traitor or mudblood automatically makes you a blood traitor, does it, Parkinson?" The key word here being civically. While my housemates only insulted them, I had talked to Neville in a civil manner. And it was true, if one was to talk to them civically, he would actually be considered a blood-traitor, but I conveniently left that part out. I didn't have to give her arguments.

"Yes!" she didn't get it. The others were watching us with interest but they wouldn't intervene. It was Pureblood honor code to defend oneself or attack another when insulted; for them, it was tradition.

"Well, congratulations, we're all blood traitors! We all regularly insult, therefore talk to, Gryffindors! Great logic, Pansy!" I said casually while eyeing her left hand suspiciously. It was moving towards her pocket and I mirrored the movement.

"Did you just call me a blood traitor?!" the pug-faced witch sneered, her face contorted with anger. I felt it, it was just moments away...

"Technically, you did!" That did it. She pulled out her wand while I simultaneously took out mine.

"Stupefy!" I blocked, but didn't retort. It would be easy to defeat her, but a simple, ease and clean defeat wouldn't have a lasting impression as a slow, humiliating one.

"Tarantellegra!" Another block. "That's all you got?" I taunted. "Expelliarmus" it was absorbed by my shield.

"Conjunctivus!" again, no effect. Parkinson seemed to get frustrated at the ease I avoided being cursed.

"Calvario!" she shouted out the incantation of the spell that would cause me to lose my hair. Well, if she succeeded, which unsurprisingly, she didn't. She grimaced, her expression close to utter hate. It was far too easy to rile her up and inside of me, it was fun. I knew I was more powerful than Parkinson and it felt good, "Oh, beauty spells! Didn't know you were familiar with them, blood traitor!" I mocked which gave her the rest.

"Crucio!" Of all the things, admittedly, that was quite unexpected but luckily my reflexes were fast enough to block it in time. The smile on my face grew larger while Parkinson was already on the verge of attempting another spell; I interrupted her.

"Hey, Parkinson, one-way ticket to Azkaban, remember?" I said and Pansy froze. The room went dead quiet. No more murmurs from people betting on the outcome, nothing. I had won and we both knew it. If not the duel per se, it would be easy enough to tell a teacher, preferably Dumbledore who would definitely take action. And there wasn't a mean of removing the magical imprint of the spell in the wand; well, there was but it was very ancient magic. Opportunity, motive and prove: In other words: she was now at my mercy.

"Let's see how a professor reacts to it; surely Dumbledore or Moody would be delighted to have a... little chat with you! See you , Parkinson. Or rather... not" I moved to the exit of the room, wand lowered but still in my hand to prevent further attacks, but they didn't come; Pansy was still standing frozen at her spot, wand loosely in her hand, realization slowly showing on her face when I exited.

Nobody followed me. Still on adrenaline from the fight, I decided to enjoy the fresh air. Why not, it was a wonderful day! All previous events were forgotten and I cherished the fact that I had something to blackmail Parkinson and possibly her friends with as well.

Of course it was tempting to just tell a Professor, it wouldn't bother me to be a sneak to get her expelled or moved to Azkaban, she did use an Unforgivable. I didn't really hate her, she was just annoying but it would be a tempting display of power. And even if she didn't go to Azkaban, being expelled was a disgrace to the family name. You see, I had total control over her.

The problem however was that usually, there was a trial involved, especially in a case where Unforgivables were involved. And a trial meant lots of background checks and investigation, something I couldn't afford being involved in at all. While my back-story was as solid one, it had just been tested lightly: One time at my faked adoption which involved only a slight amount of persuasion and influence; everyone knew how big the Malfoy family tree was and a simple memory charm on one old pureblood family whose actual name was Hale was all it took. The second time was when I played Quidditch, but it didn't involve more than a simple passport control. And the third and last time happened at my school enrollment which honestly was really lousy because Muggle-borns had to undergo it as well with no previous knowledge of the procedures.

You see, there always was the chance that a bored ministry worker decided to dig a little deeper and discovered something unwanted or minor inconsistencies, however inconsequential they might be causing my cover to blow. And then the consequences would be just as dire, if not more than Parkinson's. No, going to a professor wasn't an option because of the marking on my arm, but she didn't know that.

So I stood there at one of Hogwarts' entrances enjoying the warm sun shining on my skin and the fresh air for a while just enjoying the moment before going back in.


	7. Flitwick, Hufflepuff and Detention

Damn, I'd overslept! It was the next day and upon waking up, there had been no one in the room except me. All it took was my eyes to open when I noticed it, because the sun had already risen much further than usually. Hurriedly, I jumped out of the bed to get dressed and simultaneously tried looking at the timetable, which unsurprisingly was quite difficult. So, with one sock already put on and jumping on my foot to do so with the other, I hoppled over to my bag and pulled out the small piece of paper.

Moody. It crossed my mind that the curriculum at Hogwarts really wasn't balanced at all, because this for me right now it seemed that all we had was Defense against the Dark Arts!

I put down the timetable and finished clothing, but after descending to the common room my gaze fell upon the clock. Class had already started 50 minutes ago! Why the hell hadn't Greengrass woken me up today?! Well, at second thought it seemed quite obvious why... she was friends with Parkinson and after yesterday I wouldn't put it past her to retaliate this way! Or past Parkinson to abet her to do so.

And was I really in the mood to spent another two hours with the old Order member? No, most certainly not, so the question what to do was quite easily answered: Anything that didn't involve going to that class. Breakfast wasn't an option and staying here neither. I had already read most of the interesting books and busying myself with the Divination reading didn't concur with my plans of how to spent my time valuably at all.

So, the library it was! Maybe they had some new or better yet... old spell books! Maybe I could ask the librarian about some useful spells, a wake-up-clock spell for starters!

Surprisingly, since yesterday evening when I'd returned to the Slytherin dorms, my gaze had fallen upon the black board and... how convenient... there had been a list with room numbers and their floors. That would have come in handy a few days ago. Let's see... the library was on the first floor. Just as I was on the verge of turning away, I stopped and my finger trailed down the list looking at the rooms located on the seventh floor:... Classroom 7A, Classroom 7B... Trelawney's office... Flitwick's office... no, nothing that sounded remotely like the room filled with books and a fireplace. Curious...

Crawling through the portrait hole I adjusted my bag and headed towards the library while still pondering about the mysterious place on the seventh floor.

"Excuse me, Miss Hale!" A squeaky voice from behind ripped me from my thoughts and I turned around. It turned out it belonged to a short wizard with mustache, brown hair and golden glasses. It was surprising he knew my name because he hadn't been my teacher in any subject yet. But I knew him from old pictures: Filius Flitwick. As Dumbledore's ally, he was close to the Order of the Phoenix, so I guarded my face from any sign of anger, disgust of sadness.

"What are you doing this late in the corridors?" he continued and looked at me, his eyes never wavering and a hint of curiosity in his voice. "It just so happens that I had a very interesting discussion with Professor Moody about his lessons and I seem to _distinctly_ remember him mentioning having Slytherins and Gryffindors today." Options rushed through my head from lying which wouldn't be very cunning to pretending to be lost which, considering Moody's classroom was on the third floor completely in the other direction didn't seem prudent either.

In the end, I settled for the truth. Well, kind of it. "Sir, I overslept."

"That doesn't explain why you are not in class now..." his eyes twinkled knowingly. "But as you are already here, you can help me with something. Come with me..." he turned around and I followed.

"Where are we going, sir?" I wasn't going to question why he didn't lecture me and hurried next to him.

"Hogsmeade" he said shortly.

"Sir, if I may ask, why didn't you send me back to the lesson?" he frowned and focused on a point in front of him.

"He and I share different opinions on Unforgivable curses and I do not appreciate them being used on students, for educational purposes or not! I've never used one in my whole life." On students? Luckily I hadn't gone there today. But the most important part of this sentence lightened my heart: He'd never used an unforgivable curse, so this notched my opinion on him up a lot.

We stepped outside and the cold hit me. Taking out my wand, I cast a warming charm around myself because the jacket still lay in the dorms. The charms teacher looked at me.

"Excellent performance" he noticed as if in class to which I slightly inclined my head. A few meters away, a thestral stood in front of a big carriage in which we climbed. Flitwick with sight difficulties.

The ride was spent in silence, because even though he most likely had an intact moral philosophy, he was a member of the order and may have been a part of my brother's murder. I refrained from scowling though to not make it too obvious and he did kind of not punish me for skipping Defense against the Dark arts, probably because of his apparent dislike of the Auror's teaching methods.

The scenery outside the window seemed familiar, but not because it was obviously close to Hogwarts but rather because the carriage drove to the train station. And a train was already there, but it was differently colored than the Hogwarts Express: Instead of striking red, black and gold the wagons were shining in brown and in golden letters the word 'Gringotts' was printed on the side.

"Ah, they are right on time" the professor squeaked and jumped out of the door once we'd come to a halt. I followed right after him and we were greeted by a group of three wizards: One fairly tall young one, a small one with long hair and an elderly brown haired wizard with laugh lines.

"Ah, Professor Flitwick. We've arrived a little earlier than expected." he turned to me. "And you are?"

"Keira Hale, I'm a student at Hogwarts." he nodded and turned his attention back to the Professor who continued.

"She'll help me with the goblet..." the wizard nodded and motioned for us to follow them into the train. Inside, the seats had been removed and in the middle of one otherwise empty wagon stood a box that was made out of... gold.

"Aaam, excuse me, but I don't see a goblet." The leading wizard grinned and jumped in to explain.

"It's a protection. The goblet's been choosing the Triwizard champion for a lot of generations and it most certainly should stay this way. Plus, only a powerful wizard can remove it from the metal."

"Is it gold?" I asked. Goblins had a weakness for gold and not without reason. Although physically quite weak, it possessed strong magic. Possibly a reason for why Galleons were made out of it.

"Yes, one of the purest kind Gringotts got." As an afterthought we added. "Not to insult you, Professor, but are you sure you don't want extra protection for the ride?"

The old charms expert shook his head. "Yes, I am sure. I've got protection with me" he gestured to his right where I stood and the three sniggered slightly behind their hands. They and Flitwick obviously meant that as a joke, but there was a certain truth to it.

"Plus, it'll be easier levitating it that way. " I added which earned me a respectful nod. It wasn't well known that magical objects were slightly more difficult to move with magic, amongst other things, and the I could basically feel the magic radiating from the cube.

"Shall we then, Miss Hale?" He took out his wand and I followed suit. Together, we maneuvered the goblet out of the train and into the carriage where it barely fit. Not it was obvious why it was bigger than the normal one's.

"I'm impressed that you knew so much about the gold. Goblins like to keep it a secret." His genuinely curious expression was directed and me.

"Well, growing up in a pureblood family has the perks of having old books to read." I paused. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you, since you are the expert in charms at the school.." Flitwick seemed flattered "whether you know a charm that would function as a... wake-up call."

A grin formed on his face. "Yes, yes, there is one. And I have to say that no one has asked me for it in a long time... it would seem like a useful thing for the future." he took out his wand again. "You just wave your wand like _this_ (he moved it in a circle and then upwards) and say 'Expergisci'. It wakes you up at sunrise, if you are practiced, to be noted. Once, when I was younger..." he proceeded to tell the story of how he was actually too late for his job interview as a teacher and how the headmaster back then had been so amused by that fact that now, he was a charms teacher.

"Ah, there we are!" Once back at Hogwarts, we levitated the golden cube out of the carriage and let it float in front of us to the Great Hall.

"Place it... right here!" we slowly let the goblet sink down at a spot next to the headmaster's podium.

"Well, I believe Miss Hale, that we are finished here. 10 points for Slytherin. Don't be late for charms next week"

"I won't, sir, thank you!" Turning around, I left the Great Hall, but not before looking at the clock. In total, the little trip to the station had lasted about an hour, so classes should finish at any moment now.

\- Time skip-

The rest of the time passed fairly quickly in the library. I'd chosen the table closest to the corner which just happened to be right next to the window allowing a perfect view over the Quidditch field which was now wet from the rain. Oh, how I missed playing!

But the books were amazing! There were books about alchemy, charms, transfiguration, magical plants and even some muggle ones! But for now the books that were spread in front of me were about Hogwarts.

"Hey, mind if I sit here?" someone interrupted me during a passage about Billy the burglar who had been the only one to attempt stealing from Salazar Slytherin and had become a myth after having never been seen again. I briefly looked up and in front of me stood a girl about my height with raven black hair. "No, go ahead" She sat down and took out her books. But instead of opening them, she continued staring at the reading me until I couldn't take it anymore and looked up again.

"Excuse me?" my voice was a little biting. I HATED being interrupted while reading!

"Hey, don't go at me like that! You shouldn't go wandering around like this if you wanted to be alone!" She held up her hands defensively and when she saw my face which clearly showed incomprehension of what she was trying to say, the girl pointed at my chest.

"You don't wear a tie. Or your entire school uniform at all. What house are you in?" I looked down at my chest. She was right, there was no tie... How had that escaped my notice?!

"Thanks for reminding me. I am a Slytherin." The black haired witch leaned back in her chair. "Whoa, stop right there... Slytherin! Here in a library? Well, I didn't see that coming."

I raised an eyebrow, she was the one wearing a yellow badge on her clothes. "I could say the same thing about you..." and pointed my finger at the House sign.

"Well" she sighed dramatically. "I seem to be lost, all those papery thingies are frightening me!" she giggled. "Help me".

"Don't look at me! I don't know where exit is, either. Some Gryffindors tricked me into coming in here, I thought it was a 'how to be evil' club!" I grinned and she extended a hand which I took. "Samantha Blue. Call me Sam though, Samantha is so... long.."

"Kiera Hale. Nice to meet you..." Then I noticed that Mrs. Pince, the librarian, was eyeing us critically. "Now, why are you really here?" my voice was now a little lower and the old bookkeeper nodded approvingly and hushed away, probably to dust off some tomes.

She held up one of the books in front of her which read 'Divine divination' on its cover. "Actually, I wanted to start reading this!" The look on my face must have given me away.

"What?!" she looked at the cover. "Ow, damn, must have picked the wrong book! I actually meant this one." On the next cover, there was... actually nothing. But at the second glance I saw multiple animals carefully, it looked like stitched, onto its surface.

"It's about the first animagi!" she seemed to vibrate with enthusiasm. "It must have been so amazing! Just imagine the advantages!" Then, disappointment stole its way on her features. "Pity, I've heard there is a really advanced potion involved and I suck at those...!" Yeah, I did, too. Well, not suck at it but I was mediocre at best. Narcissa had hopelessly tried to teach me but it had never worked. And let's be honest here, there is no way putting ingredients in a cauldron in the right amount and order can be that difficult! Or so I'd thought before my first lesson in which the copper had melted and ruined the carpet. She had not been pleased... Anyway, the gist of it is that I couldn't brew the potion needed for becoming an animagus. How I knew that? Because it'd been in an old potion book at Malfoy manor's library.

So we read in silence until Sam looked at her watch. "Damn, already so late?! The feast starts in half an hour and I still got to go to the common room." I hadn't noticed how fast time had flew by and started packing the books in my bag.

"Good idea" We left the library and walked into different directions, Sam towards the Hufflepuff common room and me towards the Great Hall. Or at least that was the plan until a thought entered my mind: Nobody knew where the other common rooms were located, according to Hogwarts: a history, they were secrets to the members of other houses; Not letting this opportunity go, I followed her out of curiosity, careful not to be seen.

Samantha was walking down the stairs to the basement, then to the right. If I remembered right, this was the south side of the castle. She continued past some portraits of fruits and food and came to a halt in front of a wooden barrel of some sort.

After pulling out her want, she tapped it 10 times. It was a rhythm or something like that, but it didn't seem familiar to me. Nevertheless I closed my eyes and burned it into my memory. When I opened them again, the planks had moved to the side and revealed an entrance.

So this was where the Hufflepuff common room was located! Now, better get out of here before someone noticed a Slytherin sneaking around nearby, it wouldn't make a good impression. I turned around back where I'd come from and... bumped into someone.

"I am sorry... hey, what are you doing here." In front of me stood a tall boy who by most standards was quite handsome. And he was looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What is a Slytherin doing so far away from the other snakes?" He paused and realization dawned on his face.

"I was just looking around. This is my first year at Hogwarts and if you don't mind, I'd like to know the place where I am supposed to life for the next..." But he interrupted me.

"Cut the crap... no one else ever comes down here." He seemed nice but there was something behind the facade, I could tell. Nothing dark and sinister but rather... anger. Probably his damaged house pride because the Hufflepuff common room was no longer a secret.

"You already seem to have a pretty good idea why I am really down here..." There was no use in beating around the bush now.

"But you realize that I don't plan on telling anybody? So if you would just let me pass..." I tried moving past him, but he moved to block my way.

"See... that's the point, why believe a Slytherin? You are cunning, remember? For all I know you could just go back to your kind and tell everyone. And the one thing I don't want to have is Slytherins following us down" Well, he got a point, but what should I do. It wasn't on my list to make this location as public as possible, but the short argument he had delivered quite politely showed one thing: He wouldn't trust my word. Nevertheless, I tried.

"Well, I can tell you that I don't have the intention of telling anyone else. And if that's not good enough for you, then it's a pity... for you" While he was processing these words, I half-squeezed myself past him and left the corridor before he would throw a tantrum. But on one point I had no illusions: Sam probably would be quite pissed about having shown me their common room involuntarily. Well, her loss, why should I give a damn about that? We had known each other for literally less than a day... or hours even!

Nevertheless, I kept my hand close to my wand just in case someone (a certain Hufflepuff) would change his mind, but I arrived at my usual seat at the Slytherin table without any interruptions or problems.

The Great Hall was already filled with students of all houses, other's occasionally strolling in.

"Have you seen them already?" Zabini asked into the round. There are supposed to be some pretty hot girls in Beauxbatons and I can't wait to meet them" This statement earned him some rather disgusted looks from the Slytherins, but he also received some admiring ones.

Why? Simple. Those girls were just sick in their minds, because they would throw themselves right at him. Talk about Slytherin-honor. Zabini, I could understand, because we both knew that he over exaggerated about his "how-many-women-I've-slept-with"- list. Yes, he kept a list... And it wasn't like the other girls didn't fuss about the supposedly very handsome men of Durmstrang.

Finally, Dumbledore started talking and welcomed both of the schools to Hogwarts. First was Beauxbatons and I could honestly say that they were the most beautiful girls I've ever met. Needless to say, the others seemed to share my sentiment, particularly the Slytherin girls (especially Parkinson, maybe this would help her overcome Draco... nooo, it wouldn't...) who were scowling at them. Jealously, something so beautiful and exploitable.

But their expressions soon changed to drooling one's as Durmstrang made its entrance, complete with fire-spitting and drama. But they didn't seem too handsome to me. And the last guy that came in along the headmaster even had some of the boys looking at him in awe. Why? Well, it turned out that it was Viktor Krum! I had known that he went to Durmstrang but the fact that it was very likely for him to come to Hogwarts this year with his school had escaped my mind.

"Damn, is that who I think it is?" Draco nudged me with his elbow which earned him a stern look which apparently had no effect.

"I can't believe it, this is Viktor Krum. I didn't know he still went to school!"

"And now, let's welcome our guests the best way we can" Dumbledore announced loudly and the boys next to me groaned.

"Please, not the song, please, not the song" Zabini was whispering across from me, his eyes half closed. Dumbledore waved his wand in a complicated manner and words began emanating from it and formed... lyrics. Guess Zabini had to search for a new deity. Knowing him, he would choose a female one. This thought put a smile on my face.

"Kiera, please don't tell me you like singing!" Draco mock-sneered at me, but we both knew he didn't mean it. He must have seen me grinning and presumed the wrong thing. As we stood up, I whispered back.

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous!" When we started, the thought wasn't so ridiculous to certain Slytherin members and no, I wasn't looking at Crabbe and Goyle there, not at all. Understand the sarcasm? Good.

And honestly, the song was... not up to my expectations, to say the least. I had always respected Dumbledore, but this planted the seed in my head, that he and his mind had aged. A lot. I may respect him, but he still was the leader of the Order and I definitely didn't like him for that.

Nevertheless, after the song, which had earned us various disbelieving stares from both foreign schools, the pupils from said schools sat down amongst us. And, no surprise there, Krum chose to sit at the Slytherin table, as did most of the Durmstrang people. Obvious because Durmstrang had a similar reputation as Slytherin but I thought mainly because he'd spotted me at the table and his expression showed he recognized me.

I could feel Draco next to me compose himself as the world-renowned seeker came over and sat down.

"Kiera, hov plesant to meet you. Hov hav you been?" And there's why I loved Quidditch, especially professional players.

They didn't hold grudges, well mostly, and the rivalry was limited to Quidditch, but not personally. That was something I'd learned back at the team with Sarah and Jinx but mostly at dinner with the Bulgarian and Irish team.

"Fine, thanks, and you? Now that a certain golden something is in England again.." That earned a laugh from him and curious looks from the Slytherin table and others as well. I'd talked to him before the World Cup, well technically at the World Cup and we got along great.

"Do not worry, we'll earn it back. Vould you care vor a vriendly game somevhen?" Well, would I? Definitely, I would never say no to Quidditch and it was certain that it would be a pleasure to play with him, you could never learn enough. Know your enemy and keep him close. But besides, I kind of liked Krum.

We talked a little more, but unfortunately Draco was there as well, so after Krum noticed he was fan-girling, the seeker talked less and less and judging by the looks he sent me which my respective brother didn't notice we would have to talk some other time.

After a long dinner, we finally went to bed or that's what I'd hoped but Draco insisted that I told him more about Krum. Apparently he hadn't been aware that we kind of knew each other or that my connections with Quidditch players could lead to me knowing some famous people or his idols, to be precise. Though Draco was supportive in private, he really mostly did his own thing and didn't care or forgot to ask about someone else's live. So I went on to satisfy his curiosity, but only for about 10 minutes and then told him to shove the questions somewhere else, because I was really tired and didn't have the nerve to be polite anymore.

\- Time skip-

Finally, week-end! Boy, how had I looked forward to this! I stayed in bed for what felt like forever but in reality was closer to 9 o'clock. Am, not pm, of course, I am not that kind of sleepy!

But after I got out of bed and ready, I suddenly realized that I didn't know what to do today... There was no plan, not really things to be done. Well, except learning, which to be honest wasn't anything new to me. Narcissa and I had already spoken about that stuff in our private lessons, so nothing there.

Anyway, it turned out to be a good Saturday morning... well, until breakfast, that is. Because once settled there, a certain grey-haired transfiguration professor approached me causing my heart to sink a little.

"Miss Hale, a moment if you would?" Her words were phrased like a question but her tone clearly indicated that 'no' would not be tolerated as an answer.

"Sure." It took no genius to guess what this was all about and I wasn't disappointed.

"Just to be clear: This is about your behavior last week. I've spoken with Professor Moody and while he find it somehow.. impressive" her nostrils flared at that carefully chosen word "it is nevertheless my duty to take care of those things. Now, I understand why you disarmed Professor Moody, but nevertheless attacking a teacher is no option here, apart from the fact that you refused to come back when told so."

She gave me a stern look and towered above me. Or I thing she wanted to, but I had the higher, a lower ground here. In my opinion, the one sitting subconsciously had the power because I was in the more comfortable position. Of course, this depended on the situation, but now it lead to the fact that her reprimand wasn't quite...received the way it was intended to be.

"Now, I've decided that you are to help Hagrid _tomorrow_ and the next two Sundays at 5 pm. Don't be late!" I nodded and turned back to my breakfast, dismissing her as an act of perceived power. I wasn't a fool, here at Hogwarts she was at the top of the food chain while I was below, not quite as low as other students, but below nevertheless.

"What did McGonagall want?" Theodore sat down next to me and grabbed a bowl and some milk after the professor had left.

"Just detention." He apparently knew why and didn't dig deeper, probably because he'd heard about what had happened. To be honest, I didn't mind detention with Hagrid, he'd seemed pretty nice back at the train station. Talk about a soft soul behind a thick shell.


	8. Detention

The next Sunday was quite eventful, or at least that's what I'd hoped. I'd almost forgot about detention with Hagrid if Draco hadn't reminded me of it. No, not a friendly brotherly reminder to ensure the little sister didn't get into more trouble than she already had, but he gloated over it and insulted the Gatekeeper.

Why would he gloat over it? Simple. Since having basically been dropped off at the door , I hadn't been punished at all. Well, almost, but the point is that Draco had been punished far more often than I had. And we both had the suspicion, also we never talked about it, that it'd been because of me being basically their master's daughter.

By the way, that was probably also the reason for why they let me play in a non-pureblood Quidditch team. Actually, there hasn't been a strictly Pure-blooded team in years and because I really wanted to, Lucius must have felt like he had no choice. After all, he didn't want to look like a bad guardian when my father returned. For the Malfoys, that included me, his return had always been a question of when and not if.

And when we had strange sensations on our left (well, right arm in my case) forearms that started in Draco's first year, our beliefs had turned out to be true. There'd been a party at the Manor that evening with the Crabbes, Goyles and a few other believers.

Well, suffice it to say, I wasn't exactly happy to have my evening occupied with detention. I know, I know, I've acted like I didn't care and truth to be told, at the time that was true, but now? Not so much. So, after having the morning wasted by Draco being happy about me having detention, spending the majority of the time reading since I didn't have anything better to do, now at five minutes to five, I knocked at the small Gatekeeper's hut.

"Comin'..." a gruff voice called and I could hear something falling down inside before the half-giant opened the door. He didn't look that different than at the train station from what I remembered, well, save the clothing was more dirty and less formal. But one couldn't expect not to get muddy and that all when being in his line of work, could one?

And that was exactly the reason why my best clothing was still in the Slytherin dorm and instead, older clothes covered my body. Well, the term 'old clothes' being subjective, I am a pure-blood after all. Well, scratch that, I meant half-blood, but you get the point.

"Ah, Miss Hale " he boomed and opened the door farther. But instead of letting me in, he stepped out.

"We'll be goin' in the fores' today." He looked me up and down. "Should've put on som' older clothes" Did I imagine it or was he friendlier at the train station. Ah well, here we go.

"Doesn't matter, I can always clean them up afterwards" It probably sounded less snobby than 'I don't have any old clothes'. He simply nodded and walked ahead, motioning me to follow. Yeah, definitely different than earlier this year.

We didn't talk about anything else and I really had to step up my pace to not lose him in the woods. Finally, after fifteen minutes of jumping over fallen trees and trying not to step in holes that most definitely would have left me with a broken ankle, Hagrid stopped.

"Here 's as good a place 's anywhere..." he mumbled under his breath.

"For what?" I piped up and looked around. No, nothing special, just trees... how unusual for a forest... But what he said next, I hadn't expected.

"We're goin' to fell som' trees" Wait, what?!

"Aam, isn't the gatekeeper supposed to make sure the trees stay, well... up?" He scratched his beard and looked around.

"Yeah, the healthy ones. The sick trees hav' to be cut down." He paused. "But that ain't the point. We'll be gettin' a few new animals... and they're going to need a lot 'f space."

He went on to explain how we were going to do this and stuff. For that, he took me to a nearby tree and started explaining the signs a sick tree would show and how to recognize them without magic. Once or twice, he would ask me about things he'd already explained, but he soon noticed that everything he said was heard and stopped what appeared to be him testing me.

I was also told to mark the trees that appeared weaker than the others because "we needed more space". As before, he said that part almost with a little pride in his voice.

"So, everythin' clear?" he inquired, ripping me out of my thoughts and when I nodded, he handed me a piece of white chalk that. I could have sworn, he had made appear out of nowhere.

On second thought, well, his coat did have lots of pockets...

"I need ya' to have a look at the trees in a hundred meter's radius.." he indicated around us with his huge arms ".. and mark them accordingly. You got ya' wand with ya?"

Well, after Draco had told me about his experience what detention's with Hagrid usually involved, I had double checked it was in my pocket.

"Yes." He nodded approvingly. "Wel' then'... let's get started" and with that, he walked in a different direction to mark another set of trees.

The next hour or so were spent with me going from tree to tree, checking the rind, the roots and the leaves over and over. After a third or so, it became routine and a little monotonous, so I let my part of my mind wander while the other half went on with its task.

At the end, it turned out that about 25 trees had to be felled. And, as I was still alone when my task had been completed, I just stood there. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Maybe it would beat the boredom if I went to search for Hagrid, but as soon as that idea had entered my mind, it was already thrown out of there again. Yeah, search for someone in an unfamiliar dark forest that literally is named "forbidden" and thus dangerous during the night. Good idea. Soon, I became so bored that I decided it would be better to go on marking trees.

When the Gatekeeper came back close to half an hour later, he was surprised to find more than the required amount of trees checked and marked.

"Ya' didn't hav' to do that, ya know" he told me, but it wasn't a reprimand as his voice was laced rather with surprise than anything else.

"Didn't have anything else to do, did I?" I replied, the subtle tone in my voice indicating that I wasn't too happy about not knowing where he had disappeared to in case of... well, anything. Dark forest and so on, remember?

He seemed to get the hint because his cheeks became tinted in a slight pink, but neither of us elaborated on it and we went back in silence as we had when going into the other direction.

After a brief goodbye I went on walking back to the castle. "Lumos" I whispered and the tip of my wand began to glow, helping me to see the uneven ground beneath me as the sun was setting.

"Well, what have we here" the voice that greeted me at the gate was nasty and malicious. It belonged to a man whose glance and whole body language resembled the feelings in his voice. In his right hand, he was holding an old lamp. Filch.

While I hadn't met him before, I felt like I somehow knew him quite well from what Draco had told me. He was a squib, which unsurprisingly was the main point during his rants and he hated students. Why on earth would someone who hates students work at a school? If you asked me, this was ridiculous and it was no wonder why he always was in a bad mood.

"Sneaking around while the others are in their dorms, heh? Thought you could ignore the rules, did you?" Well, he got that completely wrong, but when I was about to tell him, he roughly grabbed my arm. Mistake.

"Do not touch me" I yanked my arm from his grasp. "I just finished detention with Hagrid!"

He didn't look convinced. "Hagrid wouldn't give someone detention... even some Slytherin like you." He glared at the crest on my chest.

"No, McGonagall did" He showed his teeth. "Now then, why don't we go ask her if that's true" God, Draco was so right about him. Suspicious, dumb and seeing conspiracies everywhere.

"Fine. But do not touch me again." Apparently he was smarter than I've given him credit, because he actually kept his hands to himself and let me walk slightly behind him; not without glancing back every few steps to make sure I didn't run.

But at least, I could humiliate him in front of the Professor. That thought at least got rid of some of the annoyance that I felt because of his ridiculousness.

When we finally arrived at McGonagall's study (Filch's paranoia surely cost us a few minutes), he knocked enthusiastically.

"Come in" the teacher's voice said and the caretaker didn't waste a second to obeying this command.

"Ah, Filch, what can I do for you" she pleasantly said before her eyes fell on me. "What has Mrs. Hale done now?" What?! Excuse me, but did she just talk about me like I was some sort of... what, troublemaker?! I couldn't believe it! It became very difficult to not let my facial expression show what I felt when inside, anger was boiling and thriving to get loose. However, that didn't mean that it didn't show in the glare I sent in McGonagall's direction. No, I wouldn't let her get the satisfaction of punishing me further.

"I found her lingering around outside the castle. " Filch now was on the verge of jumping on the ground with smugness. "She claims that you gave her detention with Hagrid!"

Now, McGonagall seemed to get what was going on and her eyes looked at both of us.

"I did, Filch. And thus she had every right to be outside for the duration of her walk back." She put emphasis on the second part of her sentence and directed it towards me. Seriously?! I was fuming now! How dare she turn this on me and talk to me like I had to be reminded of that?! Oooh, that prejudiced woman, always on the Slytherins!

"Now, if that's all, you can both go now, I still have works to grade" And with that, she re-directed her eyes at the pile of parchment on her desk. Not being able to endure another second in her presence, I stormed out before Filch could do or say anything more. Once outside, I walked back to the Slytherin common room.

But before I arrived there, I found an empty classroom, went in and smashed the door close. "Muffliato" I mumbled, a spell which Draco had taught me. Quite useful, indeed.

Once I had done that, I let out a scream of frustration. And after that, another one. And another. Halfway through screaming, the sounds that came out of my mouth weren't human anymore, but snakelike hissing. Only this time, I didn't try to talk normally again, because this little freedom helped me feel better. When I was younger, I had occasionally and accidentally switched to my, well, native tongue and it had taken Lucius and Narcissa months of... correcting that. Worst months of my life, I could tell you.

At the end of my little rant, I felt a lot better, the anger that had dammed up now having been released. Taking two deep breaths, I opened the door again and stepped out, intent on going back to the Slytherin dorms when my stomach grumbled.

Oh, right, I had forgotten to get to dinner. By now, most of the students, if not all, must have finished eating. But as I didn't have a problem with doing so alone, my heading changed towards the Great Hall. But not before a swish of my hand removed the spell from the door.

Turned out, I was right: Only twenty students were still eating, two of them being Slytherin. My Housemates apparently had the habit of always leaving the table in a large group. Or, to be precise: They always seemed to be in groups. Well, I was too hungry to think now, so I grabbed a toast, some cheese and meat and began to eat.


	9. Loyalty

As it turns out, being in the forbidden forest in October doesn't only give you the privilege of being one of the few students to ever enter it as far as I had, but also made you sick. That's why when I woke up the next morning, my throat ached and thinking or concentrating seemed impossible because every attempt in doing so ended in a flash of pain soaring through my brain.

Probably that's also the reason why Pansy's sudden niceness didn't ring a bell. Or better: multiple bells when she offered to tell the teachers why I would spend the day in bed. Sadly, I only noticed it when a not so happy Filch who was accompanied by a even less happy Snape stood in the girl's dormitory demanding to speak to me.

When Snape had told me to go to the hospital wing to get some medicine, I'd refused. It didn't help either of their mood when they had received my explanation: Relying on medicine only made you weak and when the time would come where such means were no longer available, it gave you an advantage. Or maybe it was because a day in bed was exactly what I wanted. We had Transfiguration today. Pick whatever reason you like best.

But sadly that fact had lead me to the darkest of fates, had I known how it would turn out, not going to the lessons wouldn't have been an option, because: In return, Snape conjured a cup of tea! And if there was one thing that I hated, it was hot water with flavor!

But Snape insisted. And I didn't like it.

Turns out, Parkinson didn't like it either, because it made me feel that good that I was able to hex her in the evening. She does look kind of cute as a kitten, a kitten that definitely hated being stroked and handed around by squealing girls. Nope, she definitely didn't like it.

But the next day, a bigger surprise would await me, because upon stepping out of our common room, I found Samantha waiting for... well... me.

"Hey" she said as a greeting and not knowing what to say in return, I settled with the obvious. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "Just seemed fair that I know where your common room is..." Those words somehow inflicted a little guilt. How, I don't know, after all I was supposed to be an ice-cold snake only waiting to bite innocent little badgers. Keyword being: supposed. The silence that followed would be interpreted by anyone as ice-cold and calculated by anyone who didn't know what thoughts rushed through my head. I simply didn't know what to say and was kind of relieved when Sam spoke first.

"I don't blame you, you know. I mean, you are a Slytherin... you don't know better." She sighed. "Bottom line, I had the feeling we could have been friends. Still could, if you want."

She held out a hand and I regarded it coolly, the flames of nearby torches illuminating it with warm light. It was during that moment that I knew that I needed someone out of the Slytherin's circle, someone who could draw me back to reality when necessary. Someone who did what Sarah and Jinx had done. Girl, I missed those two.

And that's how our two hands met. And to my utter surprise, Sam genuinely smiled. "Well, look at us. Can I turn my back on you without being attacked now? Or do you want to condemn yourself to utter insanity and be counted to the scum of earth and have breakfast? By the way, how are you?"

That came quite unexpected, because the normal reaction of basically everyone would have been being cautions or basically anything except smile that curved Sam's lips upwards. And for some reason, I was glad she was the way she was.

"Yeah, sure!" And before any Slytherin could come out of the hole in the wall that lead to the common room, we went off to the Great Hall. A Hufflepuff in the dungeons would not be taken kindly.

"So, Slytherin or Hufflepuff table?" There was sarcasm in my voice because we both knew that the first option wasn't really an option.

"Well, I feel like living today, so why don't we go for the latter?" was her quirky response and she lead us straight to the still almost empty wooden table. As time passed, I couldn't help but notice that nobody sat near the black-haired badger. What was obvious were the not very friendly looks from the rest of the house. When mentioned, she smiled sadly.

"Well, they didn't take it very kindly that you know the location of the common room... and it's basically my fault, so..." she trailed off. If I had any doubts that she would make a good contac... no, a good friend, they vanished now. She'd stood up for me?! I was at a loss of words and mark my words, that didn't occur very often.

Aaaand... right on cue, Draco walked up to me. Needless to say, he wasn't alone: Blaise, Vincent and Gregory were accompanying him. With a distinct cough, although he most certainly knew that his presence had been noticed by me, he got the student's who were sitting around me and my attention while his minions were positioning themselves behind him.

"You do know there's a place for you at our table, don't you?" he slightly tilted his head to his right, indicating which one he meant. Behind him, Gregory crossed his arms while Blaise was looking at me with slight curiosity.

"I know. But today, I'm sitting here. Problem?" I knew being hostile wasn't the solution, but I couldn't help it. He didn't have the right to order me around, with how much subtlety he might try. My mouth was on the verge of opening again when I noticed that the look in his eyes wasn't entirely one of coldness and pureblood pride but also one of... protectiveness and worry.

And then it clicked. He was concerned about how Lucius might react if he found out about my current company. Whatever company that might be, I didn't even know her blood-status... and I didn't care. It wasn't like the Slytherin girls were good friends... with me, anyways.

"Are you coming?" This time, it was a demand and so I stood up and bent forwards to my mouth was right at his ear.

"Drake, please just let me sit here. She's really nice and I don't really have _own_ friends in our house... Please..." When I drew back, I knew he had no other choice but to let me do my thing. He and I always had a pretty close connection, despite him being more arrogant and sometimes forgetting to tell me things. But when it came down to it, he was always at my side. Or so I hoped. Hope that the barely noticeable nod he gave me only enforced.

"Guess, we're even now" Sam quipped when I sat back down again.

"Why?" she waved her hand in a pattern that I didn't know the meaning of.

"Because you didn't go sit with your brother and I waited for you by the common room earlier."

"Aah" I knew what she meant. Loyalty. She defended me and I stood by her. Admittedly, it felt pretty good and with that in mind, breakfast passed in a rush.

"Hey, do you know what day today is?" the Hufflepuff asked me when we stood up. Was today special in any way? Not that I remembered.

"No, why?" Apparently, this was the wrong answer, because Sam grabbed my arm thus forcing me to look at her.

"Today, the champions are selected! They announced it yesterday. Oh...right, you were sick... Can't believe you missed that..." She went on to tell me about how Krum and some girl from Beauxbatons had made a big show of putting their name in the cup. And how everyone in Hufflepuff was rooting for the handsome and good looking Cedric Diggory. Wonder, who that was...


	10. Chosen

"...For those of you who don't know, the Triwizard tournament brings together..." While Dumbledore was talking to us like we didn't know about what the tournament was just to hash effects, the rest of the Slytherins were placing their last bets on who would be the champions.

And while it was clear that there was no one to bet against the famous Durmstrang seeker or the girl that took the breath away from all of Hogwarts' guys, our champion was far from agreed upon.

"... I bet five Galleons on Quentin..."

"...Quentin, for Merlin's sake, not if magic ceased to exist..."

"... What do you mean by that, Graham?..."

"...Oh, sorry, Quentin, didn't see you there..."

Of course, most bets were placed on our respective Slytherin seven years to show unity; although in private, not bothered by other houses, names like Johnson from Gryffindor or Summers from Hufflepuff were bet on. And occasionally, the name Weasley also found their way into certain arguments.

It actually was quite common for us to talk about their latest pranks and occasionally laugh about them - behind closed doors in our common room and only if no snake had been the target, of course.

"The show begins..." Zabini whispered next to me and he was right. The goblet's blue fire was eaten away by red one and moments after, a parchment of paper - the edges charred and crumbled - was thrown from it towards the hand of one... apparently frightened Dumbledore?

Why was Dumbledore frightened of a goblet? Was it really that powerful?! No, it couldn't be, if Dumbledore was afraid of it, the ministry wouldn't have allowed it to be put in a hall with over two hundred students. Not to mention, the minister himself...

"And the Durmstrang champion is... Victor Krum!" The Durmstrang fraction to our right let out a cheer - Karkaroff being the loudest - and Hogwarts followed suit. All of Hogwarts? No, at the Slytherin table, only money changed its owner and I sent Victor a nod and a slight smile when he walked past us. Didn't think he noticed though, probably full of adrenaline.

Next was Beauxbatons. And, unsurprisingly, Fleur Delacour was chosen. This time, even a few Slytherins were clapping. And if I say, a few, I mean all the boys. And Parkinson lost a lot of money and seemed quite sour. She even went as far as to smack Draco on the shoulder for staring at the blonde witch which earned her an icy look that even made her stop. Which was impressive.

When she caught me looking at her, she sneered at me. I simply smiled and turned away, knowing it would drive her crazy that she didn't have any effect on me.

Apparently, she was about to retort something but Zabini cut in.

"Sshhh, now it's Hogwarts turn!" And sure enough, the fire in the goblet changed from blue-white to a bright red once again and another parchment was caught by Dumbledore.

"And the champion for Hogwarts is... Cedric Diggory!" I thought the combined cheering from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor could be heard from outiside the castle . Meanwhile, a handsome student stood up and walked towards the same door Victor and Delacour had disappeared behind. I recognized him... he was the guy that had stopped me when I'd discovered the other house's common room.

"How on earth is this Hufflepuff..." Draco struggled for one moment "...chosen over a Slytherin?!" His disbelief was clearly shown on his face. And he wasn't the only one. All around the Slytherin table, disappointed, disbelieving and angry faces could be seen, all looking at the champion's back with barely hidden contempt.

But while their attention was focused on their bets and some nasty exchanges with the Hufflepuffs, I nudged Draco.

"Look, something's happening!" Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had noticed that the goblet apparently was on the verge of... ejecting another name?! And a look into the teacher's faces confirmed that this wasn't something they'd expected either.

When the parchment flew through the air, Dumbledore actually took a surprised step back before extending his hand and catching it. He looked at the paper and said nothing. I released the breath that I'd unknowingly been holding before...

"Harry Potter!" Wait, what?! Next to me, Draco and Zabini both - well, actually the whole Slytherin table - were exchanging disbelieving glances.

"Harry Potter" Holy, I'd never suspected the headmaster of sounding so... well, pissed actually. Draco had told me that the old wizard was always calm with a hint of craziness in him.

I looked over to Potter who was frozen and apparently didn't get what was going on. Finally, the Granger girl nudged him and got him to stand up and move towards the headmaster.

On his way, whispered erupted. But while all around me, they accused him of cheating, I studied him. He genuinely seemed surprised, in shock even. So did his friends. I knew, it was completely un-Slytherin-like, but somehow I didn't believe that Potter threw his name into the goblet. Nevertheless, I was also not quite happy about that development, to say the least. s

I mean, he would have told his friends about it, wouldn't he. And, as much as it may bother me to say it, but Dumbledore was a capable wizard and if he made an age line, it would be flawless.

No, I didn't believe what was whispered all around me. And while the others were discussing, a fleeing look hushed over Dumbledore's face... worry and... fear.

And now it clicked. Someone wanted Potter in the tournament, because it was dangerous! It was a perfect opportunity to harm the boy who lived publicly! But who would do that? Who would be so brave and foolish at the same time to attempt such a thing under the eyes of Dumbledore and the ministry alike?

"Silence!" Dumbledore waved his wand and multiple crackers silenced the louder growing whispers in the hall.

"While this is an unexpected development, I expect you to go to your dorms now while the jury will decide about what will happen. Prefects, if you would please"

"Ok, come on guys, let's go" Following our prefect whose name I still somehow didn't know, we left the great hall, but not without throwing some insults at the Gryffindors who, unexpectedly, didn't even retort as we expected. Instead, they were discussing amongst themselves. And even the other houses seemed unhappy.

Back in the dungeons, the chaos really started.

"..that stupid, fame-addicted git..."

"... I seriously hope he dies in that tournament.."

"So, why did you think he did it. Fame? Glory? Or just to show everyone how superior he is?" Zabini asked with his typical smirk.

"Who cares... Potter always get's the fame and glory.. Merlin, how I hate this guy!" Draco seemed to be enraged beyond anything I've ever witnessed. And that's why he probably shoved Theodore against the wall when he thoughtfully stated: "I don't think he threw his name in the goblet.."

"Draco, stop it!" I jumped to my feet. "Potter's your enemy, not Theodore" That seemed to get through to him and he released his fellow Slytherin.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to... you know" But the younger Slytherin only waved it off. "Don't worry about it. But seriously, did you see his reaction?!"

"I don't care, he probably was surprised that his plan worked. Or that he is the second champion for Hogwarts!" Me and Theodore exchanged a glance that meant that we both doubted his explanation, but wouldn't contradict him. From past experience, I knew that once Draco had set his mind on something, you couldn't argue with him.

"Hey, anyone want to bet on how long Potter will stay in the tournament..!" Zabini more shouted than called into the round. I raised an eyebrow at him, but he only grinned.

"He won't even participate, they won't allow it!" Somebody shouted. I leant over to the other three.

"Ten galleons on the fact that they will make him the forth champion?" Draco looked at me and then sighed. Suddenly he seemed so tired.

"I know they will. They're always on his side..." he let his head hang, a gesture that I hadn't seen from him often. And that said something.

"Come on, let's talk." I grabbed his arm and dragged him over to his dorm. Theodore and Zabini got the hint and stayed behind.

"Sit" I commanded and he obeyed. I sat next to him and took his head into my handy, thus gently forcing him to look at me.

"I know he gets all the fame. And I know you are somewhat jealous.." He opened his mouth to interrupt me, but I silenced him with a glare.

"Don't you dare contradict me on this Draco Lucius Malfoy. I know you. And I know that you resent Potter because of his fame and his popularity. Bet let me tell you one thing: Don't try to be like Potter, please. Just... stay yourself. I don't expect you to forget about him, just... remember how much you mean to me. For me, you'll always be better than him, no matter what!" I knew he had to hear this now. Although Draco would have contradicted me, he compared himself to the boy who lived far too often. Maybe because Lucius was always scolding him for not being on one level with him or being second best to Granger.

"Thanks, Keira, I appreciate it, but... could I be alone now, please" His voice was pleading and I nodded and hugged him. "Think about it" Feeling emotionally tired, I left his dorm and went back to the others.

"How is he?" Zabini asked and that made me... somewhat happy. I knew that most of the relationships in Slytherin were based on prearranged marriages and more based on business and advantages than on worry and friendship, but judging by the looks on both his and Theo's faces, they were genuinely worried about him.

More worried that Gregory and Vincent, who were eating muffins on the couch now, not caring about what was happening around them.

I sighed. "He'll be ok. He just needs time, but by tomorrow, he'll be back to his old self." They nodded.

"He always is." Theo encouraged.

"And by the way, I don't bet against girls... don't want to ruin them" Zabini joked, trying to ease the mood.

"Fancy a drink, you two? I managed to nick a bottle of whiskey from home!"

"Sorry, Blaise, but I need to sleep right now. And think." Draco's mood has somehow dragged me down as well. And so I left the two with the other Slytherins to gossip and hate-talk about Potter and to speculate how he might have overcome Dumbledore's age line.


	11. Happiness

And as I predicted, the next day, Draco was back to his normal self.

"Hey, Potter, bet you enjoy the whole attention, don't you! Hey, if you win, maybe you can give the money to Weasel, he needs it." He was calling over to Potter who was talking vividly to Granger.

"Sod off, Malfoy!" the black-haired boy called back, but Draco wouldn't stop. Yeah, definitely normal again. Maybe a little more vicious than normally, but that was understandable.

But I didn't need to get into this. Not because I didn't want to, but I felt myself too good for such a petty argument, so I walked away.

"Hey, feeling good today?" a happy voice teased beside me. Sam.

"Yeah, fantastic. Potter's champion..." I may not think that Potter threw his name into the goblet himself, but that didn't mean I was happy about his participation.

"... and I have detention today..."

"Cheer up!" Sam quipped and boxed my in the shoulder. Seriously, where did this girl get all her energy from?!

"I know exactly how to get you in a better mood. Two words: Quidd...ditch!" I would have face-palmed, but two things were stopping me. One: I was holding a book in my hand. And two: That was actually a pretty good idea.

"You can fly?" Now, Sam looked shocked.

"Of course. Well, not at your level, but I manage... Maybe you could help me out a litte, I was hoping to get on the Quidditch team next year!"

She went from excited to puppy-eyed in one sentence and I smiled.

"Sure, why not. Let's meet up at the Quidditch field in twenty minutes, I gotta fetch my broom" And then she hugged me and I froze. Nobody had hugged me in what felt like an eternity. Well, Sarah and Jinx had... Damn, I hadn't written them in like ages! I put this on my imaginary to-do-list and hurried on to the Slytherin common room to get my Firebold.

"Umpff... " I collided with something solid and almost stumbled to the floor, but caught me at the last moment.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." I was on the verge of apologizing, something very un-Slytherin-like, but a familiar voice did so first. It was Neville. And he looked like he was planning on doing so for a second time once he had seen me. Oh, Narcissa - and most of the pureblooded women would have been embarrassed - a man running into a woman. Well, actually it was the other way round, but that didn't matter. Only the outcome did.

"It was my fault, sorry.." This time, I came first before continuing my way, not wanting to be late to Quidditch. With all the school that was going on, Quidditch had wandered to the back of my mind. I know, it's terrifying!

So, because of this encounter and a little trouble with Crabbe, who'd apparently followed - apparently, because I was raised by the Malfoys, I suddenly needed a goon as well - Sam was already at the field holding a - Comet 5000...

When she caught sight of my firebold, her eyes widened...

"Well, I know this shouldn't surprise me..." she raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked at the broom.

"Come on!" I interrupted her, not being able to wait a second longer to get into the air. One leg over the broom, correct hand positions and up I was - as usually, it came naturally to me. The wind played with my hair while I was shooting upstairs and did a roll, whooing with glee! No, definitely not again. The long break of flying, of course!

When I looked back down, Sam had a look of awe on her face. And it didn't suit her at all, because it was such a difference from the usually cocky expression that inhabited her face.

"Afraid or what!" I shouted over the slight wind which seemed to rip her out of it. Once in the air, I could see that see was quite a good flier. Not as good as me, obviously, thanks both to talent and years of intense training, but it was a start. Well, a little more than a start, to be honest.

The first half hour, we just flew over the field, our house attire whirling behind us. Me circling around her, trying to annoy the Hufflepuff which, to my great fun (hers not so much) was working. After time passed, it slowly changed from senseless - no, scratch that, flying can't ever be senseless - flying to more coordinated one.

And once Sam had asked me to teach her a little, it degenerated into a little bit of training and exercise. And at the end, I let her fly on my broom to which her reaction was priceless...!

Suffice it to say, I was in a better mood once we made our way back to the castle - not that I'd been in a bad mood before. We even scheduled Saturday noon to be our regular 'flying day' as we dubbed it.

But my good mood was cut short when we arrived at the door leading inside and were greeted by none other than... Moody.

"Miss Hale, Miss Blue, always vigilant, I hope...I was hoping to have a word with you." He was looking at me with his normal eye, while his abnormally blue one was flicking between me and Sam. He frowned. "Alone, if you please."

Sam looked at me and clearly sensed my unwillingness to do so, but nevertheless patted me on the back and headed inside.

"Follow me!" Well, better get this over with...! He headed ahead, apparently in a hurry if I didn't know better towards his office.

Once there, he close the door, closed it and whispered 'Muffliato'. I grew alarmed.

"Calm down, Miss Hale. Or should I say... Miss Riddle?" Oh great, a paranoid Auror knew my secret. In an instant, my wand was in my hand and pointed at him.

"How do you know?" There was no point in denying anything, if Moody suspected, he wouldn't be persuaded by the suspect's denial.

But to my utter surprise, he inclined his head.

"Your father told me." At this moment, my usually quite quick-on-the-uptake brain seemed to have left me, because I couldn't see how everything fit together. The best of the Deatheater-hunters... a death eater himself? Or was he trying to get under my skin? If yes, he'd certainly succeeded.

Then, his skin began to... shift and with a slight 'pop', the magical eye fell to the ground and helplessly turned itself in circles. I was never going to forget this picture. Polyjuice potion! Finally, my logic reported back! And once the transfiguration was complete, a surprisingly handsome man was standing in front of me.

"Barty Crouch Junior, at your service!" he bowed slightly and made an over-exaggerated move with his hand and revealed his dark mark on his left arm. I recognized the name. The Malfoys had mentioned him once or twice in connection with Death Eaters.

Then the words he had spoken earlier sunk in. My father had told him... how?

"You mentioned my father?" He seemed to be eager to answer my question.

"Yes, yes, he ordered me here this year. This fool, Dumbledore, has no idea who I really am. And at the end of the year, the dark lord will return." He almost seemed fanatic in this moment, but I honestly didn't care. There was the possibility of me finally meeting my dad! I may not agree with him on everything, but he still stayed my flesh and blood and if there was the chance of me seeing him for the first time, I would do almost anything. I had no memories of him. Finally. I smiled.

"How?" he smiled at my question.

"Well, Miss Riddle, it pains me to say, but the Dark Lord is still weak from the past years. He's made a plan for this term. Harry Potter has entered the tournament and at the last task, he will finally brought to justice. You see, The Dark Lord wants his blood flowing through both of their venes to make him immune to an ancient curse that was his...downfall. But he'll rise again!"

I was on the verge of asking more questions, but unfortunately, this was when someone chose to know on the door.

Hastily, Barty Crouch Jr. grabbed a flask from inside Moody's coat and took a sip. I watched him change and once that was finished, he adjusted his wooden leg, finally put the false eye into his empty eye hole and opened the door revealing none other than Neville Longbottom.

"I..I am sorry to interrupt... but I finished the book you gave me..." He spotted me and somewhat awkwardly waved his hand.

"Good boy" Crou... no, Moody said in a gruff voice. Come in, I have another one for you. Hale, get out of here! There was nothing left of the admiring tone that he had used when addressing me not two minutes ago. He was a good actor.

The rest of the day, I was happy, because it was only a question of time until I finally met father. And to Draco's, Blaise's and Theo's inquiries about my mood-swing as they called it, I answered that I'd been playing Quidditch.


	12. The first task

It's been two weeks since Crouch Jr. had told me about him. He actually preferred it if I called him Barty. And I did, at least when we were talking in private; if I was by myself, I couldn't help but address him with his last name; he still was the hard Auror in my mind whenever I saw him, an Auror who I hated, who helped taking everything from me. It was difficult to manage my outward facade and not to forget who truly stood before me, but I tried.

During those two weeks we'd been meeting fairly often. Of course not too often, neither one wanted anyone to connect me to Crouch Jr. if he was found out. And that was bound to happen somewhen, hopefully after bringing my father back.

The death eater had told me about my past, exactly the things Lucius either hadn't mentioned or didn't know. He told me that he'd been just told about me recently. But he knew about my father and that were stories that I was keen on hearing.

We kept on talking about his "visions" of a peaceful and clean future as my defense professor called it. And how he always graciously rewarded his most faithful followers.

As he continued, I found myself more and more excited about meeting him: After all, who could say that they didn't want to know their father! And I was sure that I could persuade him to maybe lessen his, truth be told, somewhat radical views. Merlin, I was excited!

So excited, that I had to get my act together when I was around Sam or Hagrid. Yes, Hagrid and I had been talking about this and that after he'd invited me into his house for a cup of teen and… quite hard… cookies. And he'd apologized for his past behavior and prejudice, said it was bad influence from people who'd done the same to him.

At first, it's been a little awkward, but after a short amount of time, the ice had broken and we'd talked about Hogwarts which had ultimately led to a discussion about animals.

He spent about half an hour talking about his little three-headed dog "Fluffy", but the discussion was soon spanning from werewolfes to centaurs. We'd been talking for about ninety minutes when he'd bent over and said in a secretive voice:

"I shouldn' be tellin' you this, but the thing's we've been doin' are for… dragons. First task, yeh 'now?!"

He made me promise not to tell anyone about this. And I agreed. Granted, it was still unsure whether this promise would be kept, but he seemed nice and… naive. Hell, we'd only been really talking since that day and he already trusted me like that?! I didn't know what to make of it.

Somehow, it felt good. The Malfoys and other Slytherins for that matter only told somebody secrets – if they revealed them at all – if they wanted something in return. He just spilled and hoped I wouldn't tell anyone and get him in real trouble….

After a good nights sleep I decided that I liked his blind faith in me – however naive it may be – because nobody ever had. That's why I decided to visit him in his hut again.

This time, the talk was a little more brief, because he was too excited and anxious to talk. He had a date with… Madame Maxime!? Never had I believed this to happen, but… who was I to tell two giants, no matter whether whole of half, not to have fun in a world that mostly consisted of much shorter people.

After only ten minuted, he'd literally shooed me out and back to the castle. But not after promising me a visit to the dragons. Although I might prefer snakes, dragons followed not far behind.

Four days later, the whole school was summing with excitement and anticipation because it was the day of the first task.

I was sitting at the Slytherin table next to Blaise, Draco and his two sidekicks.

"Looking forward to today! What do you thing the first task is?" Blaise was asking in the round.

"Dunno" was Gregorys unsurprising reply and thus he was ignored by the rest.

"I heard that in the last tournament, they brought Dementors and the champions had to retrieve a scroll with a poem. Gotta say, I am pretty relieved that I am no champion." Blaise threw in. Yeah, I could share that sentiment, especially since I knew what was to happen at the end of the third task, which I was looking forward to.

One after the other, the four champions entered the hall for breakfast. The first was Victor, then Delacour and Diggory afterwards followed by Potter. And while the first three elicited screams and cheers of joy from their house mates, the latter seemed sick and was quite literally dragged to his table by Granger and that Weasley-boy.

"Eh Potter, excited for today? Have you handled your affairs yet?" Draco shouted over to them. The reaction was instantaneous. Potter didn't react at all, probably because he was to immersed in his own thoughts. Granger shot us a dirty look and Weasley actually showed us the Middle-finger which earned him a glare from Granger and ten points from Gryffindor because Snape's been watching.

"Got to admit, I am pretty happy I am not a champion" Blaise said and Draco looked at him questioningly.

"Why? You get loads of money and attention!" Draco voiced his disbelieves right when Pansy decided to cling herself to Draco.

"Aah Drakie, you would have been the best champion…." She was mostly ignored by us.

"Yeah, so why didn't you throw your name in the goblet?" I challenged him, fully knowing the answer.

"Well, self-preservation, of course… get off me, Pansy!" she did as told – albeit definitely not willingly – and went back to her clique to, I don't know, talk about clothes or the hot champions.

"Come on, let's go. I want to get the best seats in the front so I can watch Potter burn!" Surprised, I turned my head around.

"Burn?" Zabini asked and Draco smiled smugly. "Yeah, don't you know." He leaned in closer. "The first task involves fighting against a dragon!"

Zabini swore. "What the… Ok, I am definitely glad I am not a champion. How did you know? Ahhh...wait...your father?"

I'd been a running gag between us, because- let's face it – my brother tends to run off to his father rather often.

Draco glared at him, but didn't deny it. Instead, he stood up.

"Come on, best places, remember?" So we followed him outside where carriages were waiting for us… and they were moved by… Thestrals? I walked over to them and slightly bowed my head. Hagrid'd told me that they were also proud creatures, but not as proud as Hippogriffs. Ignoring Draco's calls for what I was doing, the animal slightly bowed his head as well to nuzzle my still raised hand.

"You are a beauty, aren't you?" I whispered. It was true, many would see only ugliness and evil in them, but to me they were strangely beautiful. Patting its head one more time I turned around and joined the others.

"What the hell was that?" Draco asked.

"Probably she's going mental" Blaise joked and Pansy, Gregory and Vincent laughed. I raised an eyebrow.

"You are a wizard and don't know what moves the carriages...?" I left the question I the room – or rather the carriage – and looked outside the window when it began moving.

Fifteen minutes later, it stopped again and I mentally thanked Merlin, because five more minutes in the company of Pansy and her adoring of Draco would have driven me insane. The thought that I'd have the right to protect myself from her elicited a small smirk.

"It's never a good sign if she looks like that" Blaise said mockingly with a frightened expression. He held up his hands in surrender when I turned to look at him. I burst into laughter – his expression was just so ridiculous, there was no point in denying it. And no use in trying either.

When we got out, the wind made me shiver, so I quickly cast a warming charm on me. In front of us was a big, wooden arena. I snorted… whoever had come up with the idea of letting a dragon loose in a WOODEN environment should be fired! Dragon fire was a magical fire and thus incredibly hard to shield with magic. Come to think of it, sitting not to far from a fire-spitting dragon didn't seem more prudent….

As we were one of the first, we declared the North Section the Slytherin section of the stadium… after Draco had shooed some first years away. Shooed being an understatement.

Now we had to wait… and wait… I am really glad Blaise was with us, because his wit was literally the only thing fun about sitting here and waiting. Draco kept insulting Potter, his two goons kept laughing about it, Pansy kept trying to get closer to Draco. So, soon, we both were emerged into a heated discussion about Quidditch tactics. Especially the ones we used during the World Cup.

"That Wronski-Feint was just...mean" I said, still shuddering at the memory. At the party – well, until we had apparated away – Lynch had been pretty upset with Krum.

"Earth to Kiera" Blaise waved a hand in front of my face. I realized that I must have been absent.

"Sorry, what?" After another hour of waiting – Draco became more and more unpopular amongst us five for making us get here so early – and several heating charms later – I became more and more popular – it finally began.

Of course, the minister said something first, but nobody paid attention. The Weasley twins even dared shouting "We want dragons not speeches!" after which Crouch ended his announcement suspiciously quickly.

Then a cannon was fired and the first dragon came out, along with Diggory. It was pretty impressive what followed next and even some of the Slytherins – particularly the female ones - winced as half of his face got burnt. But he got his egg, as did Krum and Potter afterwards.

I had to admit, he could fly. Apparently, the commentator thought so as well and I found myself almost hexing him for not shutting up. I mean, it's ok if you mention it once or even twice. Merlin, he could admire his flying three times for what it's worth, but not freaking 49 times. No kidding, I was keeping track…

The thing that was bothering me were the dragons. I mean, did they care for them at all?! Bloody hexes in the eye; I kind of hated Krum at that moment. And I really, really hoped – for the ones that organized the whole event – that the eggs Krum's dragon trampled were fake. I had half a mind to go and talk to them.

"Hey, what's up?" Draco asked me, laying a hand on my shoulder. He was always pretty good at reading my emotions.

"Nothing" I replied, knowing that despite how well he knew me, he'd never understand why I was caring for eggs. He'd probably laugh… Draco eyes me suspiciously, but chose not to say anything which I was grateful for.

"Hey, Draco, you know what just came into my mind..." Blaise was grinning mischievously"… you owe me 20 galleons!"

I almost face-palmed at that moment, but he was the only one that got away with something like that.

"Here" Draco grumbled, being the bad looser that he was. "Hey, can I invite you for a drink today evening, Miss Hale?" he courteously asked. I pretended to think about it which seemed to drive him nuts, but I knew he was only joking.

"Sorry, I already have a date with Weasley..." If one of them had a drink in that moment, I am pretty sure they would have spit it out at that moment. But even without the drinks, their expressions were priceless.

"Please tell me you are joking" Draco and Blaise said simultaneously.

"I am joking." Blaise wiped off imaginary sweat while Draco mumbled 'not funny' under his breath but couldn't help but smile either.

 **Note: As I am not a native english speaker (I think that much is obvious), I am looking for a beta reader or someone who reads the chapters before I post them. Remember, the review button is there for a reason ;-) Thanks**


	13. Encounters

Of course, in true Slytherin fashion, there was a party on the evening of the first task. We might not have a champion and the mood might not have been as good as if Potter hadn't made it, but it was still pretty awesome.

Blaise was dancing with some other Slytherin girl, the second one this evening, I think, while Draco was talking with the rest of the Quidditch team. Well, boasting or making fun of others might be a better word, judging by the amount of laughter and snickering.

Or it just might be the alcohol. Where they got it from was still a mystery to me, but I was determined to find out eventually.

Meanwhile, I was just sitting on a couch in the corner and thinking about the last few days. Moody had turned out to be a Deatheater in disguise, my father was alive and very close to coming back and even the presence of Order members at the school didn't bother me as much as a few weeks before.

Turns out, Potter wasn't as bad as I'd pictured him as well. I still more than didn't like him given his past, but he didn't actively go after Slytherins. Then there were his two sidekicks who were nothing like Gregory and Vincent. With a small smirk I thought of the fact that clearly the girl – Granger – was the leader of their little group. The golden trio as we Slytherins often called them.

Just yesterday, an outsider would have missed how she kept that red-haired boy in check with just a few of her glares. That earned her an ounce of respect in my view, doubt the others would see it this way.

"Hey, feeling lost?" Theo sat down next to me and I made place for him.

"Just thinking, you?" He really did seem to be a little out of his comfort zone here.

"Nah, I don't particularly like parties. Nor social gatherings." That, we could agree upon. I, myself, felt more comfortable in quiet places and was only in the common room because of house unity.

More often than not, I had to stay in the cellar because the Malfoys had hosted an "event".

"What do you think of the first task?" the smaller boy next to me asked, taking turns in eying either the table or me. I had already noticed that he mostly avoided eye contact during conversations - however when he thought nobody was looking, he was often eying the others with calculating expressions.

"Unnecessary" I still thought of the dragon eggs and the painful howls of Potter's dragon.

"Yeah, pity for the dragons?" Theo phrased exactly what I was thinking. At my pressing glance, he went on.

"I kind of find them fascinating. Animals, in general, I mean." So animals, not creatures. Suddenly I was glad about growing up in a pureblooded household – it made me pay attention to the smallest gestures and seemingly meaningless words. No pureblood wore his heart on his sleeve.

"Favorite animal?" I asked, knowing full well that this conversation went into personal grounds. Theo didn't seem to mind though.

"Unicorns" This time, I raised an eyebrow, but knew better than to inquire further. For him, a Slytherin boy, it was considered treasonous to openly admit one's fascination for such pure and innocent beings.

"Thestrals" I felt like I owed him that answer and he nodded, albeit a little said.

"You can see them?" He tensed.

"Yeah. My father" Wait, that didn't make sense. His father was alive… Then it clicked, he must have seen it at his house.

"You?" That surprised me, because he seemed like a guy that wouldn't ask about personal questions. Keep personal information about others firmly in his mind for later use, yes, but asking for it, no.

Instantly, a great sadness washed over me and my eyes teared up.

He must have seen it and quickly added.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"When I was little someone attacked our house..." I didn't trust myself to say more. He could make of that sentence whatever he wished. The official story was that my parents were murdered by extremists and the Malfoys took care of me. With a little luck, he though that I saw them die. I tried to hide the shivering in my hands by grabbing a cushion from next to me and pretending to warm my hands between it and my legs, but the glance he threw me told me he'd seen.

"Hey, what's with the sad faces?" Blaise practically threw himself down on the spot next to me playfully poked me. He either ignored or didn't see the glare Theo sent him.

"Not now, Theo!" I tried to convey that now wasn't the time, but he didn't get it.

"Oh come on, have a drink!" he continued.

Not I couldn't really stay here because I was on the verge of tears. It could have been him who was sitting next to me, him, who would cheer me up. But it wasn' – he was dead.

Before the salty substance would spill, I stood up and practically ran towards my dorm, Zabini shouting something after me which I didn't bother to understand.

Tears were practically already on my cheeks by the time I'd reached the door. But instead of it being blissfully empty for a good cry, Draco and Parkinson were making out.

At the sound of me opening the door, they stopped and took me in.

"What's up, Hale? Oh, Is the little girl crying?! Jealous, because nobody wants you?" a sneer graced Parkinson's face and any other time I would have given her hell for it, but not now. Draco glared at her, but the damage was done. My brother would have protected me.

Turning on the spot, I practically ran back into the common room, ignoring the stares following me and hurried out of it.

Absently, I noticed Draco following me, but at the moment I didn't want anything to do with him, he'd just remind me of that pug-faced bitc…

So I hurried around the corner out of his view and chose the first classroom to hide in. Quickly, I locked the door and put a silencing charm on it. Then I leaned against the wall and slid down, not having the power to keep myself upright as sobs were shaking my body.

I didn't hear Draco calling my name out in the corridor, but running past the right door.

"Quiet, girl!" an deep, commanding voice ordered. When I looked up and wiped my eyes with my sleeve – the half-transparent of the Slytherin house ghost was hovering above and in front of me. His eyes fell on my house crest.

"Slytherins don't cry. So stop it, immediately!" I huffed, but it sounded rather pitiful,

"Do I look like I care? Just..leave me, ok?!" The ghost tilded his head to one side. Hardly anybody ever dared contradicting him. Interesting.

"Then tell me, why are you crying? I do hope not about some trivial love experience?" How teenagers could be so emotional about trivial matters was still a mystery to him. Weaklings.

I hickuped.

"And why would you care?" he huffed.

"I don't." Sure he didn't.

"I lost someone I loved. He died." Despite the fact, that his expression didn't change, the bloody Baron couldn't help but feel a pang of regret in the place where his heard would have been. It reminded him of himself when he was you… no, he wouldn't allow himself to go back there.

Meanwhile, I was on the verge of crying again, the shock of the ghost's appearance having been subsided. As he noticed that, his expression – while still being stern -softened somehow and he glided a little lower.

"Remember one thing – you can cry now, but don't allow yourself to show weakness in front of others. They will shamelessly utilize against you. I suggest you take my advice." The girl had woken a curiosity in him.

I looked up and nodded, but he'd already turned to leave through one of the walls and I was alone again. Deciding to listen to his advice, I let it all out and it took what like felt hours to calm down and make myself presentable again.

Ready to leave, my face betrayed no emotion less than casualness and indifference of what had happened shortly before. Still, I didn't want to face the others now – Slytherin parties were known for going through the whole night, only pepperup potions helped us get through the next day of school – so I turned around and decided to spend the night here instead.

I transfigured one table into a bed, my clothes into a nightgown and went to bed.

There wasn't anything particular that woke me up the next morning. No singing birds, no noisy students. Nothing. Getting out of bed, this mystery was quickly solved as I remembered not taking down the silencing charm yesterday.

I didn't know what time it was, neither where I was supposed to be. But I was pretty sure that I was late for…. Whatever.

Damn, and I needed a shower. My hair was pointing in different directions and the school uniform had more crinkles than McGonagall's face.

No, I couldn't go anywhere like this. With a little help from my wand, I flattened my hair and cast a good-smell charm on my, which should suffice for the way to the Slytherin tower where I could shower.

Last night had been weird. Not weird in a bad and awkward way, but rather… interesting.

I didn't meet anyone on the way to our dorms and to my great relieve, my two dorm-mates had already left.

So I quickly showered, even daring to remove the finger-free glove hiding my mark, and…. As I didn't look at it every day due to the glove, its change of color had escaped me. Instead of light grey, it was now noticeably darker. I knew what this meant: He was becoming stronger. And hopefully, when he was back, the ones that were responsible for… his death would suffer the consequences.

Then I dressed, something in me feeling a little guilty for coming to late and looked on my timetable. Care of magical creatures with Hagrid. Yeah, the little part was right.

I practically jogged to Hagrid's hut, seeing the crowd of students from afar. They seemed to be catching… something.

"Running late, are you?" The woman, I'd just ran past called after me and I stopped.

"Do you have lessons with that…giant, now?" I eyed her with carefully hidden contempt. She had golden locks and locked like she just came from a high-society event, similar to a snob. That stupid … witch obviously didn't know Hagrid.

"Who wants to know?" I asked and my opposite flashed a fake smile.

"Rita Skeeter, reporter.." she took out a green feather and a notepad. The feather already seemed eager to write on it and I found myself to be on my guard.

"So, are you heading towards the Hagrid? You don't mind if my quick quote quill writes everything down, do you? Good. " she repeated, giving me no time to refuse.

"Yes" I forced out.

"And are you afraid of what he will do if you are late? Oh, you already are…" she let out a giggle and her quill began writing frantically.

"Definitely not."

"No?"

"No." That was all she was getting out of me and I resumed walking towards the lesson. Unfortunately, Skeeter followed me. And when we came closer, the picture that presented itself clearly didn't favor Hagrid's teaching methods. The screwts were running around and only the "golden trio" was trying to catch them while the others preferred hiding in or behind the hut.

Trying to save the situation, I expertly walked towards one of the creatures. Using a flip-jinx, I caused it to land on its back, spraying sparks and to helplessly struggle. Then I pressed my wand into one of the spots between its belly and the leg and shocked it.

"See, he taught us how to handle them." I said to Skeeter, still being out of earshot of the others – she didn't seem convinced, but I couldn't care less at that moment.

"Excuse me! Are you the teacher?" she called out to Hagrid, eying him in a not very friendly way.

"Yeah, that's me. Why?" he gruffly responded. Apparently, he wasn't a fan of that woman either.

I left the two to talk, resumed shocking screwts and hovered back into their cage. The other students – those who actually wanted to help, that is – quickly copied my actions and withing ten minutes, all were captured and unconscious. Meanwhile, the exposed parts of my skin were covered burns. After a quick inspection, they turned out to be minor though.

"An interview. Why not?" I was close enough that the wind carried over Hagrid's response to Skeeters answer.

And while he might not know why not, I most certainly did – she would try to destroy him.

Behind me, Draco sniggered and I glared at him, causing him shrink a little.

"Kiera.." he began, but as soon as I'd spotted Parkinson – also laughing next to him, basically clinging to his arm, him allowing it! – I turned around, indifference on my face. Underneath, I was boiling, but the bloody Baron's words were still swirling around my head.

"Hey, wait…" he tried again, but I was already walking away and back to the castle as Hagrid had announced the lesson's end. Draco knew better than to follow me this time.

\- Time skip-

At dinner, I was sitting alone this time – which I didn't mind. After the events of today and yesterday, I didn't feel much like chatting with the other Slytherins or listening to their gossip about other students.

Through the noise created I perked up as some owls flew into the great hall. Normally, they'd deliver the letters or presents in the morning, but there were always a few exceptions.

To my surprise, a unknown owl landed right in front of me and held out her leg. She was brown, with some black spots on her feathers and her beak was slightly malformed.

Stroking her head, thus eliciting a small, joyful cry, I untied the letter from her leg.

"Thanks" I whispered and with an affectionate bite, the owl flew back from wherever she'd come from.

Curiously, I opened the letter.

"Dear Kiera, come to my hut at dawn. You have detention. Hagrid" The content was short and on point. But why did I have detention with Hagrid?

Looking outside the window, I noticed that the sun would be setting in about half an hour. So enough time to finish eating and getting a warmer cloak from the dorms.

So it came that I reached Hagrid's hut shortly after sunset, a little later than expected. Hagrid was already waiting for me.

"Hello Hagrid" I greeted. "Detention?"

"Yeah, needed an excus' for you comin' to me after curfe'" he scratched his head, but when he looked back at me, his eyes were sparkling with excitement.

"Y'are gonna like this" he motioned for me to follow him as he went into the forbidden forest.

I searched my mind for a reason what he wanted to show me, when I heard roaring. Dragons.

I smiled, he'd remembered! After a brief walk that was illuminated by my wand so we'd not stagger because of the uneven ground, we arrived. It was the area where I'd already spent detention and felled trees.

"Heyha Hagrid, come to say goodbye?" a red-haired man supposedly in his mid-twenties was coming towards us.

"And you've got company…!" apparently Hagrid hadn't told him, but he extended a hand nevertheless. I looked him over. He had quite a handsome face, though swetty, and was well built.

"Kiera, and you are…" I grasped his hand firmly and shook it. He mock-winced.

"Call me Charlie. So, Hagrid…" he turned towards the half-giant "why are you here?"

"Promis'd Kiera her' to show her the dragons. Hope yah don't mind…" Charlie smiled.

"Well, I don't seem to have a choice now, do I? Come on!"

He lead us around the dragons, careful to not get too close to the iron cages. Don't look them into the eyes. Don't come too close. Don't anger them. No quick movements. Those were the rules he mentioned were important in such a field of work.

I asked him various questions about his job which he answered with equal enthusiasm. But after some time, my Slytherin nature overcame my Ravenclaw one and the only thing that was missing was an opportunity to grasp.

It came when Hagrid took over the questioning and I was following them. Careful not to make a noise, I stopped and turned another way, away from the group and back to the dragon that had fascinated me the most – even during the tournament.

Apparently, Merlin was with me and I managed to get to the cage of the Hungarian Horntail, careful to stay out of its range. It didn't seem as fierce and wild as it'd been in the arena, chasing Potter, but rather… calm. Lying on the floor of the cage, it wasn't as big as I'd remembered or imagined - thought certainly big and intimidating enough.

Apparently, it had sensed me and turned its head in my direction. The look that met me was a piercing. Piercing, mixed with… curiousity and… I couldn't identify the last thing.

I don't know why, but … not removing my eyes from his, I slowly bowed. No reaction. I came back up and continued to hold its gaze.

Then, it lowered its head and laid it upon the ground, never looking anywhere else.

I took it as a clue to come closer, while somewhere in the back of my mind, the part that was tasked with self-preservation was shouting to 'Get the hell away!'.

But I was captured with fascination as I closed in. When I was at the iron bars, some still warm from obvious contact with fire before, I outstretched my hand and reached towards the Horntail's head. Slowly, it moved its nose towards my fingers and sniffed it. Like a…dog.

By the way, the part of my brain responsible for self-preservation… just fainted.

When it had finished, I carefully stroked its head… the part that I could reach, that is. And it just sat there, not doing anything.

Then my eyes fell onto his body and a I felt a rush of pity. Some of its skin was obviously missing… and one of its legs was lying in a different angle than the others. Damn it, Potter! And I damned myself for not making the connection between him coming back and the dragon staying behind…. Roaring…earlier. It hadn't been a roar of attack or revenge, but of anger and…pain.

Moving slowly and obeying at least one of the rules Charlie had instated earlier, I squeezed myself through the bars and into the cage… a nightmare for the workers here, I was sure.

Carefully, I stepped closer and towards the injuries, slowly setting foot in front of foot. Now, the dragon was alert again and its head wasn't resting on the ground anymore, but was at my height.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you…" I whispered in Parseltongue, making sure that the tone of my voice conveyed reassurance and calmness. Carefully, I took out my wand. I had switched to the language accidentally because of the tension in my body and my mind.

Those injuries must hurt and when I looked into the Horntails eyes again, I recognized the emotion from earlier: pain.

I may not be the best at healing, but I could at least try. I sank to my knees and waved my wand over one of the injuries, whispering charm after charm, incantation after incantation.

First I lessened the pain on both the places where the flesh was exposed and the leg. Then I tried mending the flesh. Probably because a dragon was a magical creature and thus different from humans, it took more charms to do so, but at the end, the flesh was healed.

I knew the sheds would re-grow, so I left it like this. For the foot, I couldn't do anything. My knowledge of dragon skeletons was limited at best and I would probably do more harm than good.

Somewhere during the procedure, the Hungarian Horntail had laid its head back on the ground, the alertness and some of the tension having subsided. It was working! One last time, I cast a charm to kill the pain on its leg, insuring with a simple "Ferula" that it couldn't harm itself further by accident. Then, I left.

When I went back to its front, the dragon moved his head to my hand and softly exhaled. I figured it was its way of saying 'thanks'.

Slowly, I moved outside and was met by a lot of wizards, all dressed in fire-proof clothes and a very worried-looking Hagrid.

"Thanks, that trip was very interesting!" I said to Hagrid and Charlie in an attempt to break the silence while the others -and they, for that matter – were looking at me with awe.

"You do realize what danger you've put yourself in" Charlie snapped out of it and apparently, he was a little angry. Justified.

I nodded.

"It was worth it." And I meant it. For some crazy reason, I – a Slytherin – risked that for helping a creature. Charlies eyes softened.

"I am glad and to be honest, I don't know how you did it, but it wouldn't let us come close after the tournament. We only managed to get it into its cage by stunning it. So… good work, I thing. Still dangerous, though!"

"I'm sorry." I was not. I liked animals and Charlie seemed to read me like a book.

"So, if you've got anymore questions, you're welcome to write. Or visit, that is." His face now bore the ghost of a smile and behind him, a few of his co-workers were nodding eagerly.

We said our goodbyes, then I left with Hagrid. He asked a lot of questions on our way back and also scolded me for being reckless though it was obvious that he was more curious than angry about the incident.

But I'd helped a wounded creature today, so it had been a good one. Apparently, I was better with animals than with humans sometimes.


	14. Yule Ball

"And it is tradition, that during the Triwizard tournament, the traditional Yule Ball is being held." As McGonagall was announcing this, everyone began to whisper with more or less happy expressions. First case being most of the boys, last case being almost all girls. Almost. I detested balls.

Probably because of my upbringing. Narcissa and Lucius had insisted that I took dancing lessons and regularly practiced because it "suited" a girl to know such things. Well, I knew it did, but the routine and compulsory nature of my tutelage might be the reason for my dislike.

So, I inwardly groaned while Greengrass and Parkinson were squealing and bouncing up and down in their seats, Parkinson not to subtlety looking at Draco with glee.

But I didn't pity him, not now and not this time.

"Quiet, now. Mr. Weasley, would you come to the front please?" Had it been a question, I am sure Weasley would have refused; if judging by the color of his face was anything to go by. I knew someone who I'd wished had to dance with that old woman. The Slytherins laughed.

Draco, who was sitting behind me, bent forwards and whispered in my ear.

"Do you want to go?" I whipped my head around so fast, my hair almost whipped Theo in the face. "Sorry" I apologized and directed my next words to my semi-brother.

"Go with you to the ball... gross!" He shook his head in desperation.

"Not like this, just before anyone else asks you." He motioned towards where the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were sitting and true to his word, some of them were actually looking at me. I snorted. As if!

"No thank you!" I replied.

"Come on Kiera, why are you like that?" he desperately asked, ruffling his hair with his hand in exhaustion.

"Probably because I hate Parkinson and if you hadn't noticed, it is mutual. Sorry, but I'd expected a little more from you. How could you even talk to her yesterday when she insulted me. By the way, you were shagging her at that very moment!"

"Miss Hale, do you have something to contribute? A demonstration of you dancing skills perhaps?" McGonagall interrupted; I turned my attention back to her and smiled sweetly.

"No, Professor, just _excited_ about the ball. Sorry." I didn't mean it at all, but thankfully she either hadn't noticed it or her age had robbed her of the energy to deal with me now. Either way, it didn't matter.

"So it's a no then?" Draco was persistent, but this time I didn't turn around and instead listened to the old bat in front of us.

"And before you ask, Zabini, it's a no for you as well." Zabini froze and it was quite clear from his expression and his body language that he'd been on the verge of tapping me on my shoulder and asking me to accompany him.

But there was no use in denying that it felt kind of good to have even boys from other houses look at me now and thinking about asking me out.

Until lunch, that feeling had died in a most horrible way. Not being able to go to classes without being asked or asking others for that matter was awful. Not awful because it wasn't a nice idea or because I was jealous of Diggory asking Cho, but because ... it happened all.. the...bloody...time!

"Hey, Kiera, wait up!" someone called just before I entered the great hall. Not again! Wait, that voice belongs to a girl. And true, it was Sam who was walking towards me. She was always alone, I'd noticed. At least, whenever I saw her.

"And, has somebody asked you yet? Sorry, stupid question. Have you accepted one of the proposals?" Sam was quite good-looking, if I dare say so and certainly, she'd been asked by somebody.

"Yes, I've been asked and nobody has the unbelievably big honor of accompanying me yet" she answered true to her personality.

"Although, probably half of the girls are already off the table. Who'd you like to go with?" I pretended to ponder about the question, although the answer was quite obvious.

"Tell you a secret: I fancy Weasley..." I told her and for a moment she seemed to buy it. It was very brief moment, though, then she erupted in laughter.

It might have been one of the most serious and demanding tasks that I've ever had to keep my expression straight. She stopped.

"You aren't serious, are you?"

I couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

"Weasley, heck no!" Unfortunately, the moment in which I said that was not the best as said Weasley had been within ear-range.

"Shut up you little snake!" his head had become red like a tomato and he was storming towards us, his two companions right behind him.

"Sorry, freedom of speech." Sam replied, standing beside me. Weasley was fuming.

"Ron, come on, let's go!" Potter said to his friend and Granger seemed to agree with him, glaring at us. I had to suppress a grin now, because behind them, Snape was approaching silently like a predator that'd spotted his prey.

"I... I wouldn't want to go with you either" Weasley stammered, not having noticed the black menace behind them. "A dirty snake and a traitor!" he spat out and beside me, Sam tensed for a moment.

"Oh, oh, Weasley. 20 points from Slytherin" Snape chose to make his presence known.

"But, Professor, she started..." the red-haired boy started and Granger rolled her eyes with a desperate expression.

"Care to make it fifty? Or detention?" the cold in his voice seemingly made the temperature around us drop a few degrees. Even Sam and I felt it.

"No, professor" Weasley replied hastily and tried to get away from my head of house as quickly as possible. We still heard him grumble about the incident, though.

Snape turned around to face us and eyes me, then Sam and then me again before he spoke.

When we entered the hall side by side, we were on the receiving end of some glares from some Hufflepuffs and... all of Slytherin because they still hadn't accepted my friendship with Sam.

After the next charms lesson, which conveniently was with Hufflepuff, Sam and I were on the verge of leaving when Professor Flitwick called us back.

"Miss Hale, a word, please?" Sam was seemingly pondering about whether this also applied to her, when Flitwick answered her unspoken question.

"You may stay..." and with a smile he added "I believe Miss Hale would tell you anyway." True, although I wasn't used to talking to other people. Not that I didn't trust Sam, because I did, it was more that it hasn't happened very often.

"How can I help you, sir?" Since we fetched the goblet from the train station, my respect in the older wizard had only grown because of his skills.

"I've talked to Professor Dumbledore about letting a student help in setting up the next task. I was thinking of you because of you skills in charms. Also Hagrid mentioned that you were a big help to him."

I thought about it a moment.

"Of course, you would have to keep it a secret from everyone else. We wouldn't want the champions to know of it in advance, would we?"

"No sir, of course not. I'd be delighted to help." It would give me an opportunity to learn something and maybe get in the good graces of everyone. Although I didn't give a damn about what the other order members thought about me.

"Good, then meet me the day after the Yule ball at 7 am in front of the castle. That should give us enough time, while the other students are still sleeping."

"Should I help, too?" Sam asked Flitwick.

"I don't see why not, Miss Blue. Be sure to be on time, you both." He replied.

"Anything else, Professor? Do we need something special?" He smiled.

"Assuming that you can both swim, I think the only things you need are your wands and swimming suits." So the next task involved swimming. And one didn't need to have much brain power to conclude that it would most likely take place in the black lake.

We separated after we'd left to get our stuff and meet back up in the library to study a little. It went unspoken that said studying would certainly involve the black lake and what the task could involve.

We each took a couple of books whose titles like "Water charms for champions" (quite the irony, actually) or "Vigenere's vegetation" and took the table in the corner of the library that was a little secluded. We should, after all, keep this a secret. 'Hogwarts, a history' wasn't missing, of course.

"So, what are we looking for?" Sam asked.

"First, let's search the table of contents for something useful like dangerous or useful plants that grow underwater, useful charms and hexes and the inhabitants of the black lake… Now that I think of it, I think I've seen some mermaids from our common room. Knowledge about their culture would be quite useful as well."

So we did as mentioned and went on to research the whole marine topic to find something useful. And we did find something, indeed: A charm that would enable someone to breath underwater for about 70-90 minutes, depending on the caster.

Some useful and dangerous plants were also relevant, for example one that would stick to anything, below the surface and eatable ones.

And I was right about the mermaids: There were indeed some of them living in the lake. And while the culture was different from pod to pod, some ground rules should be obeyed. When speaking, always keep eye contact without blinking, if possible and don't move too quickly. Their relation with wizards was quite good albeit rare and for them to allow wizards in one of their lakes – which they were protecting fiercely – during such an event had only ever happened once or twice.

But if I had to guess, the headmaster had played his part in it. He was probably well respected amongst the mermaids and thus he had been able to persuade them, but that was pure speculation.

"So you think that the champions will have to fight against the mermaids?" Sam asked. The same question had already popped up in my head as well.

"I think so. I mean, the task has to be challenging. So far, we only know that it most likely – like really likely – it takes place in the black lake. They have to be involved somehow, because there aren't any other predators in that lake. At least no local ones - well, apart from the squid and that one is really peaceful. Fight against them… no, not directly."

I paused.

"But they could import other marine species from elsewhere…" This made it impossible for anyone to specifically prepare for the task. Did I miss something?

"How exactly are the champions supposed to find out what the task is about?" I thought aloud and Sam answered my question.

"The golden egg. It makes screeching noises, but how that should that point to the lake… or water in general?"

"Screeching noises, you say?"

"Yes, why?" I thought I'd read about this somewhere already today… Scanning throught the pages, I quickly found the relevant passage.

 _"_ _It is the difficulty to understand each other what has led to little contact between mermaids and humans for centuries. To understand this, one must imagine that wizards can understand mermaids in the water. Above the surface however, their means of communication is not easily understandable, because it degrades to a high-pitched scream. As a result of the witch hunt in the middle-ages where wizards and witches have been thrown into the water, many wizards still don't know how to swim and thus the contact between maritime species and humans has decreased"_

I read the article aloud and Sam understood.

"The screeching… it's just the way mermaids talk above water."

"Now the real question is what the task is, but I don't think we can guess that without hearing the message first."

Luckily, we didn't have to go throught the ordeal of stealing an egg or at least listening to the message underwater, because Flitwick would tell us after the Yule ball. All in all, it hadn't been too hard to figure out the general topic of the task, but we had had help, so…yeah.

"Do you wanna go have dinner?" Sam asked. I hadn't noticed the sun had already set during all the research.

"Yeah, why not?"

During our walk, Sam picked up the topic from earlier today.

"So, who do you want as a date for the ball?" She looked at me from the side.

"Actually, I don't really know whether I'm going at all…."

"Wait, what?! Come on, that's an opportunity that you won't get again so quickly. You have to go!" she seemed genuinely upset and shocked about my reaction to her question and continued to get me to go to the ball until she had succeeded. Which she did, because I think I knew her personality well enough to say that she would have gone on endlessly if I hadn't agreed.

"Well, of course Cedric Diggory doesn't seem bad, but he's already going with Cho… but apart from that…. Zabini's hot…" I snorted.

"If you want my advice: Don't go with him, you'll just be his bed warmer and then he will throw you away."

"Ok, so… I don't really know who else…"

"Me neither, my step-brother wants to go with me, but only because he doesn't want anyone else to"

"Gross!"

"That's what I've told him!"

"Kiera?" a voice behind asked. We turned around and found Theo standing in front of us.

He took a deep breath and then asked.

"Would…would you like to go to the ball with me... As friends, of course?"

Ignoring Sam who was nodding so strongly besides me that I was half fearing of her head falling off, I considered his offer. He wasn't very handsome, but not ugly either and more importantly, I liked him. He was nice. And it was just as friends, he said.

"Ok." He started grinning.

"Thanks, looking forward to it. Ladies..." With a nod of his head, he turned around and vanished behind the corner.

Then, something threw itself around me, something with two arms. Sam.

"Congratulations, you love-bird!"

"Just as a friend, Sam!"

"Sure." Her tone conveyed it very clearly that she didn't believe me and I rolled my eyes.

Two days later, the day had come and the whole castle was summing with excitement. Sam had been invited to go with a handsome Bulgarian boy whose name I couldn't pronounce. Thought she had made it very clear that it was a one-time thing with an evil smirk - I could only pity the boy.

Theo and I would meet up 10 minutes before the ball should start in front of the entrance of the great hall.

At the moment, I was in the Hufflepuff common room with Sam much to the chagrin to some Hufflepuffs – Diggory included.

The reason for that was because I most certainly was able to dress myself, but my hair was a different topic. I was glad that I hadn't inherited my mother's curls. Sam had promised to style it, because I didn't know any other Slytherin girl so well that I would entrust her with my hair. The only female Slytherins I had frequent contact with were Parkinson and Greengrass and that was only because we insulted each other and were dorm mates.

"So, ready! How do you like it?" Sam removed the piece of clothing from the mirror – she had insisted on it – so I could see my reflection. And I looked… amazing! My brown hair was bound into a loose French pony tail and only two strains of hair were loosely framing my face. She'd also used a charm to color the tips green. Simple, yet beautiful.

"Thanks, Sam, it's amazing. I don't know how to thank you!" Sam smirked.

"Make my homework, clean my room and take notes for me in class!" We laughed because we both knew that she was kind of a stickler to learning. Never would she deliberately miss a class or an assignment.

Fortunately, she also knew how to style her hair without any help, because I wasn't very good at it. Terrible, really. The most I would do with my hairs was a simple pony-tail.

As it was now, my hair fit perfectly with my green dress. When Sam had seen it, she had just coughed "Slytherin" under her breath and then smirked at me. She wore a fluent blue dress and her hair was indescribable beautiful with blue strains. How she had done that without help was a mystery to me.

"Ready?" We still had ten minutes until we had to be at the great hall.

"Yeah, let's go" We received quite a few appreciative glances on our way and true, both our dates looked like they appreciated what they saw.

"Ladies." Theo and Mr. Unpronounceable held out their arms and we took them.

"You two do dress up nicely" Theo remarked and Sam actually blushed, causing the Bulgarian boy to grimace and to brokenly phrase the same thing as Theo had just said.

His attempts however were overheard in the sudden "Aahss" and "Is that really her?" from all around us.

We searched for the source of their admiration and it didn't take more than five seconds to spot it. Or better: to spot her. At first, I didn't recognize her, but then it hit me: It was the Gryffindor bookworm, Granger! And she was downright beautiful! No wonder I found myself staring along with the other boys.

But the real surprise happened when no one else then Victor approached her and she took his arm. Well, he'd certainly made the right choice. Absently, I noticed that her usual two companions didn't look very happy at the thought of a famous Quidditch player leading their friend away. Typical jealous boys…

I came back and noticed Theo had begun a conversation with Sam and her date, thought the first two were dominating the conversation and the latter was looking more and more frustrated.

Finally, McGonagall called for the four champions to come to the front and open the dance. They all managed quite well, thought Potter seemingly had some difficulties which his was elegantly covering up. Soon, other pairs joined in as well: Dumbledore with McGonagall, Hagrid with Maxime and Filch… with his cat. What's wrong with that guy?

And I had to admit, Theo could dance as well. Although it shouldn't come as a surprise, because of his heritage, it kind of did. He usually was quiet and it was kind of hard to imagine him as someone who could lead.

After the first dance to a more classic sort of music, another band took the stage and the music they played was anything but classic. It made us all dance wildly, even us Slytherins who seemed rather stiff to others. Particularly Zabini seemed to enjoy himself and was already dancing with two girls – neither being his original dance partner.

Although normally, I wasn't a dancer per se, it took half an hour for Theo and me to stop dancing and get refreshments. He offered to get some, but I wouldn't have it and instead proposed a change of role: I would get the refreshments while he would wait.

True to his upbringing, he was initially opposed to the idea, because it 'wasn't proper', but I convinced him. After I came back with two alcohol-free cocktails –courtesy of Hogwarts – Theo was already talking to Sam and the Bulgarian guy was nowhere to be seen.

I observed the two for a moment and could tell by the way Sam was giggling – very unlike herself – and Theo was laughing that the two were enjoying each other's company.

"Sorry to interrupt" I smiled and gave Theo his drink; Sam put a strain behind her ear and eyed the cocktail curiously. And the very romantic Theo gave her his drink.

After the first few sips it turned out that the cocktail had most likely been spiked with something strongly alcoholic and that Sam clearly enjoyed the alcohol in it.

I, myself, gave my drink to Theo, because I didn't particularly fancy alcohol in such doses. And true to its purpose, the drink loosened us up and we spent a lot of time laughing.

It turned out that Sam didn't have a very high tolerance for alcohol and when she couldn't stop anymore, Theo stepped in.

"I think you should stop now, Sam" They were now on first-name basis, "and you should probably head to bed. I don't see you doing much else today…"

"Schhhhh…s' key…'m tooooootalllly fit….seee" she tried standing up and without Theo's help would have promptly fallen.

"I think you are probably right. I'll take her." I said and slung one of Sam's arms around my neck.

"I could take her…"

"No, that's ok, I know where her common room is and more importantly, I – as a girl – can get into her dorm. It's probably a good time for me to head to bed, too. But thanks, I had a great time!"

"Me, too"

So I dragged Sam back to her dorm without any major incidents. Well, she threw up one time, but luckily not on my dress and all it took was a vanishing charm to get rid of it.

So after I tucked her in, I kind of felt very mature in doing so, I made my way back to our common room. The clock sounded thirteen times –eleven times, then a break and then two more times. Half past eleven.

But the bell wasn't the only thing I heard. Someone was crying in one of the classrooms and I paused.

The Slytherin in me was telling me not to care and to go along, whereas something else in me urged me to at least look in whether everything was ok or if it was something serious.

I opened the door.

And in front of me was the last person I'd expected to see this evening: Granger. She was sitting at the wall, crying so hard that she didn't notice me at first.

By the way she had looked at the great hall, I hadn't expected Krum to abandon her.

"What…hiccup…are you doing here? Come to amuse yourself?" Apparently, my presence was now known and I didn't know what to do. I wasn't the best with words when it came to comforting somebody. But I took a chance and did what Draco would have done – and always did, apart from last week – when I was in a condition like Granger now.

I went up to her, sat down and wrapped one arm around her. And apparently, that was enough, because she broke down into tears again and sobbed into it.

And I just sat there, watching her doing so. Was it really that easy? It didn't feel as awkward as I thought it would have.

It took her half an hour to calm down and at the end, she didn't have any tears left and just rocketed back and forth.

"Thanks." She finally said in a quiet voice.

"You're welcome" I answered. She hiccupped.

"Sorry about ruining your dress…" Then she stood up abruptly.

"I should go back to the common room…. It's almost curfew… But thanks…" She smiled at me and I returned it. Then she left and closed the door behind her.

After vanishing her tears from my dress, I got back to the Slytherin dorms as well.


	15. Underwater

What the hell had I done yesterday? Having just woken up by the ringing of my wand, the thought flashed through my mind. I'd comforted the Gryffindor Princess!

Ok, breathe….relax and think about it rationally. Yes, I had comforted her, but was that really that bad? At the moment, this decision wasn't an easy one to make: On one hand it was what every human would or better should have done. On the other hand it would ruin my reputation with the Slytherins if they found out. Not to mention what the Gryffindors would think of me!

The ridiculous thought that they might even be nice to me was dismissed as soon as it dared sneaking into my mind. They'd probably hate me even more if Granger told them.

I really do hope that she didn't and won't but there was nothing I could do now!

Trying to put the issue in a part of the brain where it would stay until I had time to further ponder about it, it was half past six in the morning: Half an hour to go until the meeting with Flitwick at the Black lake.

After ten minutes, I was ready to go, but the most important thing was that Parkinson and Greengrass were still deeply asleep. I may or may not have casted a spell on them yesterday when they'd woken me up in the night with rigorous laughter, obviously drunk.

Not to the matter at hand: a bathing suit. Or rather, the lack thereof in my trunk. The house-elf had obviously forgotten to pack it. Well, I wasn't a witch for nothing! A flick with the wand and one of my shirts transformed into a black and green bathing suit with long sleeves – to hide the mark. A bikini most definitely wouldn't do and I could always dodge questions about the unusual clothing; it'd probably suffice to say that it was cold outside.

Putting it on and concealing the suit below my school uniform, I carefully left the dorms and headed out in the corridor. But apparently all the carefulness wouldn't have been necessary because the common room was empty and so were the corridors. Even most of the portraits were still snoring and dozing.

I didn't see Sam at the entrance of the castle. Probably she was already at the sea? Well, only one way to find out. Falling into a light jog, I headed towards where Flitwick had told us to meet.

Only a few dozen meters away I spotted three figures: Two tall ones and a small one. The identity of the last figure was easy to guess and the two others revealed themselves to be Dumbledore and McGonagall. I had half a mind to turn around right there because of the two Order members – particularly that old fool Dumbledore – but right at that moment, they spotted my advancement and waved me over. Lucky me!

"Go to hell." I hissed under my breath in Parseltongue and took a deep breath to get my act together. I'd to be careful around those three. Particularly the headmaster was known to be quite insightful.

"Miss Hale, right on time! But where is Miss Blue?" Dumbledore greeted me and I forced out a shrug from my half-rigid body.

"I don't know headmaster" my strained voice came out, hopefully Dumbledore thought it was because of my house.

He took out a watch.

"Well, she still has five minutes left. How I could have overslept when I was twenty still is a mystery to me. Nowadays I am lucky to catch my daily seven hours of sleep" the headmaster chuckled and I refrained from rolling my eyes. I was pretty sure that below all that niceness and happiness was a calculating and cold wizard that just waited to move the ones around him like chess pieces. He wasn't called "mightiest wizard of the century" for no reason.

"Ah, there she runs…" Flitwick said and I followed his gaze. He was right and Sam was literally running until she stood in front of us.

"Sorry…late..overslept….wand….sorry…" she panted, but Dumbledore held up one hand.

"You are still in time, Miss Blue, no need to worry." he assured her.

"Now that we are complete. I am sure you two have figured out by now that the next task involves swimming. I trust you haven't told anyone about that" Dumbledore gave us a piercing nod, but seemed to accept our negative answer. Then, he motioned for us to follow him and went ahead two teachers and two students following him.

"Very well. Today, we're going to prepare the second task. Luckily, the head mermaid had agreed to help us today, so it shouldn't be too hard." He stopped at a hidden bay not fifty meters from where we'd started. On the ground were some ropes as well as a lot of metal bars.

Dumbledore turned to Sam and me.

"You two will accompany the mermaids to the ground and bind the ropes to something solid. They will show you where exactly. But make sure that they are tight and don't come loose or we have an international crisis at our hands…" he chuckled, then continued.

"In the meantime, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick will put up part of the stands from where the schools can support their champions. If you are done, just use a direction charm to find us. Oh, I believe our contact is here!"

And indeed, the surface of the lake was no longer calm and silent but some bubbles were escaping to the surface. A moment later, the head of a mermaid broke through the water.

"Greetings, Professor" it said in very broken English. But instead of answering in English, Dumbledore forced some broken pieces of a foreign language out of his throat.

Sam and I exchanged glances and were quite certain that the old man had lost his mind, but apparently the mermaid understood him.

"Miss Hale, Miss Blue, may I introduce Trayic, second tribe leader. He'll show you where to place the ropes. If you'd please follow him." Dumbledore translated the creature's chatter.

Yeah, sure, just follow the mermaid with teeth and an expression that basically screamed 'I'll kill you!' from miles. Did we have to know something about their culture, I don't know, how about what we shouldn't do!?

But apparently there wasn't anything important and I didn't have time to ask one of the teachers because Sam was already half in the water and I was being stared at. Oops… idiots.

Carefully, I followed Sam into the lake – and thankfully, all the warming charms were working perfectly, because otherwise we'd be frozen by now. I shivered at the thought.

Then, after casting the bubblehead charm on ourselves, we put our heads underwater and followed the mermaid who seemed eager to get away from the surface. From time to time, it had to stop in order to wait for Sam and I and I swear it once laughed at our style of swimming.

After a few minutes of swimming which passed quite quickly due to the vast variety of different underwater species – glowing fish for example. Now, in front of us was a small, I guess you could call it village with a big statue in the middle of some sort of plaza.

"You…bind…tow…there…" Trayic motioned to the statue of… I think it was Neptune… never mind. We both took the ropes that we'd slung across our shoulders and swam forward. Honestly, it wasn't a difficult task, just tying a rope to a status, why couldn't have the teachers done that themselves?

I finished the work with a quick fixing charm to make sure they didn't get loose and then turned to Sam.

As we couldn't talk underwater, despite the bubblehead charm, I motioned upwards. I definitely didn't want to help the teachers do their job now. Call it lazy, I don't care, but spending more time than necessary with Dumbledore and the old Gryffindor house hag wasn't on the top of my priority list.

What a waste of time.

When we broke through the surface again and swam towards the shore, the warming charm was wearing off and so we were shivering by the time we sat feet on the land.

"I-i-I d-d-don't think t-that w-was a g-g-g-good idea.." Sam forced out and thanked me after I'd cast a warming and drying charm on us both.

"You know, actually, we were supposed to help the professors…" I teased and Sam looked at me disbelievingly.

"No way I am going back into the lake…. No way…" when she noticed I wasn't serious, she made a face.

"You know, I have half of a mind to push you into the water.." she grinned. Quickly, she conjured a piece of paper and a quill to write a note to the headmaster before we made our way back to the castle.

I sneezed. Great…


	16. Hagrid

One week later, I was sitting at the Slytherin house table and eating my breakfast which consisted of some fried eggs and toast along with a glass of orange juice while simultaneously reading a book about charms and spells – which, seriously, must have been written by a Slytherin for a Slytherin. I'd already found quite a few spells which could prove useful in the future – a spell to disguise yourself, one to detect hidden people and another spell that could give your target the worst nightmares he could ever imagine.

Still emerged in the book, I didn't notice how Draco next to me snorted. I did however notice him elbowing me in the ribs lightly.

"What?" I snapped, hating it to be interrupted while reading the especially interesting chapter about Steffan the Sneaky and his you-will-never-have-heirs spell.

Draco pointed to a specific article and handed me the newspaper he'd been reading.

"Can you believe this? I thought the oaf just fell into a Skelegrow-potion when he was young, but a giant? Seriously, does Dumbledore only allow half-breeds in the school. Flitwick…"

He didn't finish, meaning he couldn't, because I more threw than handed the paper to him and stood up.

"Sorry, I just remembered that I forgot my homework for transfiguration today!" Draco didn't seem convinced, because my lie was kind of obvious. Although I did never do my transfiguration homework – or that's what the old hag McGonagall was thinking because I never handed it in. Doesn't mean I didn't do it – it was a very far stretch to actually seem shocked about this.

Some of the other Slytherins threw me some casual glances as I left the room with big steps, but as soon as I'd cleared the great hall, I started running towards a small, wooden hut at the edge of the Forbidden forest.

But about halfway between Hogwarts and the hut, I had to stop because, well… frankly, I was exhausted. And not because it was a particular long way to run, but to my shock I realized that it was because of my lack of sport and overcompensating this lack with sitting in classrooms.

That had to change, I swore to myself and continued in a quick-pace, though it was now rather walking than running or even jogging.

When I arrived at the hut, I carefully looked around for anyone else to see me. It wouldn't do me any good if someone spotted me, because news around here travelled fast and I didn't want the Slytherin's against me.

"Hagrid, let me in" I knocked at the wooden door, but nobody answered.

"Hagrid, it's me, Kiera, let me in!" I knocked harder this time. Maybe he hadn't heard me or just wasn't there. Moments later, a bark from the inside told me both of those options weren't right. He was just hiding.

"Hagrid!" This time, I was practically hammering against the door in a very un-fashioned way. If Narcissa could see me now, she would faint that a 'lady' would disgrace herself like that.

Oddly, when nobody answered once again, this thought helped me fix my composure and actually switched on my brain and the Slytherin in me.

"Hagrid, I give you five seconds to open the door or I will open it for you! One…two…" When I'd reached four and was actually going for my wand, the door opened and revealed a not to happy looking Hagrid looming over me.

"What're yeh think….."

"Thanks" I cheekily said and pressed myself into the hut, past his body and doorframe which was an achievement itself.

"Well, this is cozy, isn't it?" I stated as my eyes took in the inside of Hagrid's home. There was food everywhere – mainly for animals – some empty cages and even some cages over which Hagrid had thrown blankets over. And they did produce very, very strange sounds. And unfortunately, on the table was the latest edition of the Daily Prophet, opened on the page which was showing Hagrid's face.

"What're yeh thinging, stormin' in here like that?!" Hagrid almost yelled and I was ripped from my thoughts and turned around to face the Gatekeeper.

"What I think? What are you thinking of hiding in here?" I took out my wand and pointed it at the still open door which snapped shut and locked itself.

"It this about the Skeeter article? I am not leaving until you tell me what exactly is going on!" I practically screamed to match Hagrid's booming voice.

My little screaming tirade left Hagrid speechless and Fang covering under the table.

"What do yeh care?" he asked, some of the previous fight having left his tone.

"I don't. That's the point. I don't care that you are a half-giant and I certainly don't care what Skeeter wrote about you. But if you let her get to you, if you hide in here like a coward…" I gestured around "she won. She got what she wanted. Don't let her get that."

Hagrid was now looking at me curiously, then sighted and sat down on one chair.

"Slytherin eh? Yeh don't act like one... But I guess yeh're right. But I just need some time. Has been a while since someone has brought up my parents..." he sighed.

"Nobody knows that I am a half-giant, except Dumbledore... great man, this Dumbledore, great man."

"I know the feeling, more than you know. Hiding something, not being able to talk about it." I stated like in a trance, but quickly snapped out of it as the Gatekeeper gave me a questioning look. I waved my hand.

"Forget it, this isn't about me right now. But do remember what I said or there will be consequences. Next time, I'll just blast in your door." She paused. "Take today off, I expect you were already planning on doing that, but I expect to see you next week." I didn't bother to wait for his answer, turned around and unlocked the door.

Before opening it however, I contorted my face. I'd almost given myself away in a stupid moment of weakness. That shouldn't have happened and it wouldn't again.

On my way back I didn't run this time, partly because I just didn't want to and partly because this time, I could just tell anyone who bothered to ask that I went for a morning walk.

Speaking of somebody asking me, I spotted someone coming towards me from the castle, heading towards Hagrid's hut on the same path that I was taking now to get back to the castle.

And that someone was wearing quite colorful clothes and had a long, white beard. The devil himself: Dumbledore.

"Oh, miss Hale, I didn't expect to see you out this early. It's a rather nice morning for a morning walk, is it not."

"It is." If Dumbledore was bothered by my answer, he didn't show.

"I see left after your work was done at the sea last week." I didn't reply during the careful placed silence. He hadn't yet asked a question.

"I congratulate you to the good work, however brief it might have been, miss Hale. Have a nice day." I nodded and walked away, a small smile gracing my lips. Helped a friend and annoyed an enemy, well not before breakfast, but almost. Maybe it would make a nice challenge to get that done before breakfast. Or before they even stood up, yeah that seemed like it!

 _"Hey, watchhhhh out.!"_ someone said and I looked around but there wasn't anyone to be seen.

 _"Ssssstupid humanssss, never looking out where they are goingggg..."_ this time, I recognized it as what it was. Parseltongue and judging by the direction it was coming from, the snake must be just left from... got it.

 _"Ssssstupid, you say, little sssnake."_ I spoke to the snake who was moving away, but at the sound of my voice stopped, lifted her head a little towards my direction and flicked her tongue.

 _"A sssspeaker, how rrrarrre... Are you a desssscendant..."_ it hissed.

 _"How elsssse would I speak Parssseltongue... Kiera, by the way."_

" _Selah... but watch out where you are goingggg, or the next time I will bite you..."_ she warned and slithered away.

"Yeah, until next time" I murmured. Strange snake, but I was most definitely going to watch my step next time. Pity the snake hadn't crossed the path a few moments earlier, maybe she would have bitten the silver-bearded bastard Dumbledore.

Anyway, once I'd reached the castle, I didn't have time to go to the Great Hall to finish breakfast because a certain Polyjuice-drinking disguised death eater told me to come with him and led us into an empty classroom.

"Two people in an empty room. Teacher and student. Gross. What is it, Crouch?" he didn't seem to like that.

"Don't call me by that name. Either Moody or Barty, I hate that old bastard who also carries that name." he seemed to collect himself.

"I came to tell you that everything is going according to the plan. You need to do something for me..."

 **(AN: Sorry that it took so long, but I needed to clear my head about this fanfic. Anyway, thanks for coming back - Loyalty will be rewarded - and leave a comment in the section. It won't hurt, I promise!)**


	17. Author's note

Hey guys, thanks for reading. This may be sad news for some of you, but I've kind of noticed that I don't know where this fic is going and that I've forgotten some parts of Kiera's relationship with major characters.

This is the reason why I will most likely repost this story with a slightly different premise. Sorry.


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